Commuters on their way to work
(Picture: Jeremy Selwyn)Civil servants has been ordered to return to their offices after the dropping of work from home guidance to help boost the recovery of town centres.
Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay called on Government departments to accelerate the return to office based working saying it will boost staff collaboration and help support local businesses.
Measures will be put in place to “monitor office use and get people back to normal, pre-pandemic arrangements, with clear Ministerial expectations put in place”.
Mr Barclay, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said: “Now we are learning to live with Covid and have lifted Plan B measures, we need to move away from a reliance on video meetings and get back to the benefits of face-to-face, collaborative working.
“I’m grateful to the Civil Service for managing the challenges of the last two years. It is important that we now see the maximum use of our office space being made from next week, as we build a strong recovery after the disruption of the pandemic.”
The order to return to the office will be a particular boost for London, where more than 90,000 civil service staff are based.
While many frontline civil servants have remained in their places of work throughout the pandemic, many more have been working from home.
The Minister’s call for government departments to enable a return to full capacity has been reiterated by the Cabinet Office’s Permanent Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service, Alex Chisholm, who has written to leaders across Whitehall asking them to support a significant and swift return of staff to the workplace.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will also raise the issue at Cabinet next week, where he is expected to urge Ministers to make sure their offices are working at full capacity at the earliest opportunity.
It is expected that Civil Servants and other office workers returning to the office will bring economic benefits for businesses across the country, with sandwich shops and the hospitality sector due to see a dramatic increase in footfall.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has emphasised that the capital’s reopening will reverse the “devastating decline” in the number of people coming into the city centre, which had dealt a heavy blow to so many businesses.
Boris Johnson told the Evening Standard on Friday: “As we begin to put Plan B restrictions behind us, it’s brilliant to see London getting back on its feet... We now have real cause to hope that brighter days lie ahead for our great city.”
