Tuesday to Thursday has become the typical working week in offices across the country as most staff work from home on Mondays and Fridays, a study of mobile phone use suggests.
The analysis of anonymised phone data from more than 500 high streets from 2019 to 2022 found increased activity in many suburban and small towns because workers are commuting less into big cities. Another notable trend was that seaside towns were significantly busier than before the pandemic.
Chlump Chatkupt, founder of the analysts behind the study, PlaceMake.io, said: “The places that have thrived have a more balanced, diverse mix of office, residential and retail. Residents are spending more time at home and in their local community and finding they can do a lot without venturing too far out.”
The figures correspond with other evidence that shows city centres are quieter on Mondays and Fridays.
Freespace, a technology company that has 120,000 workplace sensors in corporate offices across the country, found on one week last May that less than 15 per cent of desks were occupied on the Friday compared with more than 40 per cent on Wednesday and Thursday. Before Covid average occupancy was 60 per cent. The trend was most pronounced in London.
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Mark Allan, chief executive of LandSec, a commercial property firm, said Tuesday to Thursday was busy in the City of London but that activity halved on Mondays, and Fridays were almost as quiet as weekends.
“We’re not going back to how things were pre-Covid,” he told the BBC. “We certainly believe there are going to be fewer people in offices for the longer term and we are planning accordingly.”
CBRE Investment Management, another commercial property firm, said that empty office space in London had more than doubled in the past three years.
Government departments have been among those using fewer desks as staff work from home. Data obtained under freedom of information law from 14 of the biggest ministries shows they had 27,004 desks between them in January 2020, just before Covid struck, but by November last year that figure had fallen to 21,641.
Andrew Mawson, managing director of the workplace consultancy AWA, said: “Our latest research shows that employees are coming into the office just 1.5 days a week, which shows how much potential efficiency gains there could be and the threat to office block owners.”
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The loss for city centres appears to have been a gain for smaller towns and the suburbs, where high street footfall has increased. Town centres such as Marlow, Glossop, Matlock and Colchester have all experienced rises of between a quarter and third over the past three years.
Seaside towns have had an even bigger rise in activity since the pandemic, attributed to workers moving there from big cities. Morecambe, Budleigh Salterton, Porthcawl and Skegness are among the coastal areas that have had footfall up by more than half in the past three years.
The biggest single increase was 60 per cent in Kirkby, Merseyside, although this is partly because of local regeneration including the opening of a supermarket in the town centre.
Raj Krishnamurthy, chief executive of Freespace, said it would be some time, if ever, before British cities reach pre-pandemic occupancy rates.
He said: “Our data has shown a huge discrepancy in the growing number of people in offices between Tuesday and Thursday compared to the eerily quiet Fridays. What is interesting is that our data has also shown the use of meeting rooms has also gone up. This reaffirms the belief that people are using the office to meet and collaborate and focusing on the more concentrated tasks at home.
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“Many organisations have embraced hybrid working models. People have been given more flexibility in their work. In a world where videoconferencing and remote working has become normal, synchronised operations have proven not just workable but, in many ways, successful.”
