New train stations… and moving to East Devon to work remotely…
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The two leading contenders for the new parliamentary constituency of Honiton and Sidmouth have both claimed victory in the campaign to get the railway station reopened at Cullompton.
Easier access to the West Country by rail is being pushed by everyone it seems.
And, despite earlier warnings about over-egging Cornwall – the new WFH destination of choice, better train connections might well have an effect on the growing work-from-home phenomenon The reality today is that more people are moving to East Devon to work from home where there are still railway lines to working hubs – and so it looks as though “the world of remote working is now here to stay”
What’s most striking is that WFH is reviving town life in places such as Budleigh Salterton, and perhaps even Cullompton – so that seaside towns are seeing a big boost in high street footfall:
Activity also seems to have increased in seaside towns, including Budleigh Salterton in Devon. The town which had a reputation as a place to retire, has attracted an increasing number of young families. Adam Sweet, a structural engineer who largely works from home, said when he arrived in the town in 2016 he knew of only one family with young children in his neighbourhood. “Since then, there’s 10 or 20 families in our area who’ve all moved in and I know a lot of people who are waiting to move in to Budleigh, it’s become quite a family area,” he said, adding: “People can live further away now.”
This is the conclusion of a recent piece by Paul Waugh writing in the i-news, where he looks at the government’s pronouncements over cancelling the HS2 project and arguments over WFH – and the pejorative acronym for those who only attend the office on “Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays” (or “Twats”):
There’s also the demographics at play too. Increasing numbers of traditional Tory areas are being populated by younger, more liberal residents who work hybrid and live more cheaply than in big cities. From Hastings to Lewes, this army is on the march, and voting Lib Dem or Labour. Unless the Tories start appealing to “Twats”, they risk looking like twits.
The link being made between HS2 and WFH has been going of for some time.
The rail project’s opponents claimed during the first months of lockdown in 2020 that a huge increase in video calls and remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic cast serious doubts on HS2’s business case. Two years later and Dominic Lawson writing in the Mail noted that those in charge of the project were working from home themselves, thus showing it was folly to spend tens of billions on the project. Meanwhile in parallel, rail workers were complaining about the hypocrisy of HS2 with staff being told to take a cut in pay and conditions as rail numbers were down.
And so, last month, the Business Secretary was saying that HS2 may not go to Manchester because more people are working from home; and the former Transport Secretary declared on the scrapping of HS2, that people work from home more post-COVID.
Retuning in more detail to Paul Waugh’s analysis in the i-news this week, he too feels that blaming HS2’s downfall on remote workers is hypocritical and wrong – as it’s the government itself, often led by the Treasury, that has led the drive to remote working:
Among the justifications Rishi Sunak used for his axing of the northern section of HS2 rail this week, one prompted vigorous nodding from his audience. “The economic case has massively weakened with the changes to business travel post-Covid,” the Prime Minister said. In other words, if you can Zoom online, you don’t need to zoom along a rail line. But as with other bits of his rationalisation for scrapping the Birmingham to Manchester link, Sunak’s case seemed like an after–the-fact excuse to window dress his real motivation of simply shifting more money into marginal Tory constituencies.
For a start, the HS2 extension case was never based on commuter traffic and more on extra capacity for freight and leisure. Secondly, while commuter (daily work trips) rail numbers are still sluggish after the pandemic, (at least into London, but not in the north) business (for specific meetings) rail numbers are actually nowhere near as bad. Thirdly, if the PM was right that remote working undermines a north-south rail link, surely it would also undermine his revived plan for Northern Powerhouse Rail?
Yet although Sunak wrongly cites remote working for his ditching of HS2 north, he has in the past been much more sensible on the merits of hybrid employment practices than a great deal of his Tory colleagues… Cheap shots at the Civil Service look hypocritical when you realise that it’s the Government itself, often led by the Treasury, that has led the drive to remote working. Why? Because it saves money on expensive London office rentals… A new HMRC office hub in Leeds was expanded to accommodate six other departments, largely because HMRC was doing more hybrid and homeworking than planned and need to fill the space. The Government’s Places for Growth strategy relocated Civil Service jobs out of London, and around 40 per cent of those jobs were expected to be “home-based”.
And as chancellor (and as a former US-based financier), Sunak himself has often taken a pragmatic approach to the benefits of remote working, not just in cost savings but better productivity for both the public and private sectors… There’s no question that collaborative working and strategising is much easier in person. Lockdown should also have taught us the mental health benefits of meeting colleagues face-to-face. As Sunak himself has put it: “You can’t beat the spontaneity, the team building, the culture that you create in a firm or an organisation from people actually spending physical time together.”
For younger staff, many of whose cramped flats are a far cry from the luxury studies and large gardens of their older colleagues, firms should take seriously their need to build social and professional networks. After suffering a dreadful lockdown at university, it’s appalling that some companies force new graduates to work from home simply to save on office costs. For them, their laptop-in-the-kitchen or bedroom may feel more like a prison cell than a flexible working nirvana.But a mix of remote working and office working makes eminent sense for both staff and companies, with the flexibility of remote working allowing for easier childcare and time saved from not commuting. And despite the pejorative acronym for those who only attend the office on “Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays” (Twats), the bottom line is hard to argue against… Yet studies show remote working increases productivity by 5-8 per cent, working hours up to 8 per cent longer. The number of employers who report that an increase in homeworking has increased their organisation’s productivity or efficiency jumped significantly last year.
There’s also the “levelling up” benefits too. Around the country, it’s small towns that have seen increases in footfall as more people spend more weekdays working nearby rather than commuting. Co-worker hubs are a great way to revive the ailing high street too, as people spend more time and cash locally. Labour’s Emma Hardy is leading a fascinating drive to turn redundant retail units into residential and co-working space. Her “Work Hull Work Happy” project came after research and design staff at BAE Systems were spared redundancy if they switched to being remote workers.There’s also the demographics at play too. Increasing numbers of traditional Tory areas are being populated by younger, more liberal residents who work hybrid and live more cheaply than in big cities. From Hastings to Lewes, this army is on the march, and voting Lib Dem or Labour. Unless the Tories start appealing to “Twats”, they risk looking like twits.
More later on the ‘Work Hull Work Happy’ project, the chair of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on modernising employment, and the Flexible Space Association (FlexSA)…
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