A new dividing line appears to be opening up in UK workspace, and it is between public and private sector occupiers.
Data from Knight Frank/Cresa and a regular statistics drop from the UK government show a gap in the approach to office-centric working models and those employers who remain more tolerant of working from home.
Yet both public and private sector data suggests that pre-pandemic work patterns are — very slowly — reasserting themselves.
The Knight Frank/Cresa research looked at 350 international firms and revealed 31% of occupiers implemented "office first" or "office only" policies. Just 12% planned to be "remote first" or "work from anywhere."
However, figures released last week by the UK government show some government departments still recording low workplace headcounts.
Whilst many government departments have around two-thirds of workplace staff capacity occupied, others, including the Department for Business, Enterprise and Skills, are much lower, hovering between 48% and 66%. Other departments with low monthly occupancy are the Foreign Office (50%-52%), HM Revenue and Customs (41%-50%) and the Home Office (54%-56%).