Yahoo News Boris Johnson urged to consider lifting 'work from home' guidance next month
Conservative MPs are calling on Boris Johnson to consider lifting "work from home" guidance from next month to help quicken an economic rebound after lockdown.
They argue that with more than half the adult population having received the first of two Covid vaccine doses, those who want to return to the office should be allowed to do so.
While a detailed Government roadmap for reopening has been published, clarity on when people will no longer be advised to work at home if possible is yet to emerge. It is being looked at as part of review of social distancing rules, with changes expected to come in at June 17 at the earliest.
Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs, told The Telegraph: "If we don't end working from home then the businesses dependent on offices full of people will be in existential difficulty. That's why Boris Johnson should follow the data and get us back to the office as soon as is safe and feasible.
"With the vulnerable vaccinated and the link between hospitalisations and deaths now broken, I would have thought the Prime Minister should be exploring April 12 for a return to offices."
Another senior Tory backbencher said: "My general view is that if the data stays good and improves then things should be accelerated. I don't take the view that people should be forced to go back to the office. I'd expect we'll have a much more hybrid arrangement. I think that people should be free to go back to the office."
Both Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, have recently indicated that they expect many people who have been working from home will want to return to offices. Working from home fatigue appears to be setting in, with a 20 percentage point rise in the number of people planning on returning to the office.
A study by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) found that workers could return to offices faster than expected as a result of the success of the vaccine rollout. It found that in the three months to February 80 per cent of employees now wanted to head back once the pandemic is over, up from fewer than 60 per cent in the previous quarter.
An RCS report said this change in perceptions may be attributed to "the speed of the UK's vaccination programme, with more people now seemingly expecting a faster return to normal life than previously anticipated".
Kath Fontana, the RICS president and a facilities management specialist, said: "We've all recognised that workplaces will need to adapt as a result of Covid-19, but it's very revealing that this latest survey shows much more optimism on the return to the office.
"What we've seen is employers using this time to look forward to and plan ahead for what the 'new normal' will look like. Effective facilities management will be even more crucial as we build back from this pandemic – the positive sentiment expressed by our professionals on the ground in this survey is light at the end of this dark tunnel."
