The working from home revolution

Promoting Economic Resilience:

“New mixed development should… consider the values of homeworking to the economic vibrancy of the Sid Valley.”

Sidmouth’s economy is made up of the following, which are all under considerable strain in the current circumstances:

Care homes: Devon care homes under pressure
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: Support your local small business and Support for Sidmouth business
Tourism and Hospitality: Concern for the Sidmouth tourist industry

These are either still struggling to operate or have had to close down completely.

Somewhere in the middle are those businesses which can still operate from a home office – which might have longer-term effects:

A permanent shift towards home working…

And it’s a feature of the Sid Valley Neighbourhood Plan, made late last year:

Economic Resilience: “new mixed development should… consider the values of homeworking to the economic vibrancy of the Sid Valley, support placeswhere networking can be encouraged, particularly for semi-retired, voluntaryand professional people who work from home”

“Proposals for house extensions and/or conversions of existing domestic buildings to allow for home-working will be supported…” (Policy 17)

https://eastdevon.gov.uk/media/3112215/svnp-referendum-version-july-5-2019.pdf

Radio 4’s In Business looked at the new phenomenon:

Working From Home

In Business

Since the Covid-19 lockdown began, millions of us have been toiling away trying to work from home for the first time: converting living rooms and bedrooms into makeshift office space, wrangling with technology, and juggling family life with working hours. How good are we at doing it? Caroline Bayley explores the upsides and challenges of “WFH”.

Working From Home | bbc.co.uk

This really is revolutionary – as this selection of pieces from the media from the past 24 hours shows:

From boardroom to spare room: the working from home revolution | theguardian.com