Lockdown fatigue pushes people out to work
Britons are heading out to work in growing numbers as lockdown fatigue grows following the launch of Boris Johnson’s coronavirus roadmap, official figures suggest.
The share of adults travelling to work jumped to 39pc in the week to February 28, up from 34pc in mid-February, the Office for National Statistics said.
The proportion of adults working exclusively from home has also dropped sharply from 37pc to 32pc since mid-February, its survey of more than 6,000 people showed.
The trend will heighten ministerial concerns over weakening adherence to the latest lockdown following the publication of the roadmap on February 24.
The Government has also launched a campaign urging the public to “keep going” despite more than 20m vaccinations so far.
Official guidance states that people who can should continue to work from home where possible until a review is completed ahead of the final unlocking of the economy in ‘Step 4’ on June 21.
But the ONS survey showed nearly half of adults, or 49pc, leaving home for work at least once in the past seven days.
Paul Swinney, director of policy at the Centre for Cities, said he was not overly surprised by the data: “From that five percentage point drop which is quite a big one, it certainly seems that there's been a response to the roadmap announcement.
"I do think that this gives you a flavour of what we might expect to come in the coming months. We do expect that we will see a fairly strong return of people back to the workplace.”
Martin Beck, UK economist at Oxford Economics, said: “It is a sign of confidence that things are on their way back to normal. The publication of the roadmap has boosted sentiment as well as the frustrations of a winter lockdown.”
One senior City figure told The Telegraph: “Particularly private equity and hedge funds are keen to have a proportion of their people in. People have got more comfortable with the risks and the case numbers have dropped pretty precipitously."
Another business owner added: “We had 15 people in the office yesterday, which was slightly too many but the camaraderie was incredible.
"There are definitely more people going into the offices in the West End. There is a real sense of frustration and burn-out in what is a very long lockdown. People are fed up.”
Meanwhile, most companies will ask employees to return to the office after the pandemic because working from home hurts productivity, a Bank of England policy maker said.
Jonathan Haskel, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, said technology was the only industry indicating that staff could achieve more from home according to his analysis of ONS data.
“A net balance of firms across the vast majority of industries does not intend to use home working as a permanent feature,” he told a webinar on Friday.
“It’s likely that the majority of industries will return to the workplace when the pandemic restrictions are lifted, lessening the impact of structural change from this quarter.”
