The House of Lords Home-based Working Committee has published a report which says working from home “could support the Government’s plans to get people back into work, by enabling people to work who might not otherwise be able to do so”.
The report, Is working from home working?, used multiple sources, including written evidence from researchers who had used Understanding Society data in their work – and oral evidence, including from Raj Patel, Associate Director of Policy and Impact Fellow at Understanding Society.
The Committee’s findings include that:
- hybrid working can be the “best of both worlds” compared to fully remote or in-person work – if done well
- not everyone can work from home and access to it is unequal, with levels higher among professionals, university graduates, and those living in London.
Its recommendations for the government include:
- encouraging employers to invest in management training to support remote and hybrid working
- publishing updated guidance for employers, rather than further regulation or legislation on home working
Evidence submitted to the Committee included:
- Written evidence from Alan Felstead, Emeritus Professor at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data, Cardiff University, whose work used Understanding Society
- Written evidence from Jonathan Payne, Jackline Wahba, Anne Green, David McCollum, Ian Taylor, and Armine Ghazaryan, based on a research project using Understanding Society and Labour Force Survey data
- Oral evidence from Raj Patel on collecting data on different aspects of home working, before, during, and after the pandemic
The final report points out that “working from home has become the ‘new normal’ … the ONS estimates that 13% of working adults in Great Britain work from home all of the time (fully remote working), and a further 26% work from home some of the time (hybrid working). The UK is estimated to have one of the highest levels of home working in the world.”
Baroness Scott of Needham Market, who chaired the Home-based Working Committee, said in a statement: “Due to under-investment in management training, the skills needed to successfully manage hybrid working are lacking. We’ve asked the Government to address this by reconsidering current cuts to relevant apprenticeship training, or coming up with a suitable alternative to encourage training investment.”
