{"id":1082901,"date":"2026-07-11T15:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T15:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1082901\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T15:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T15:10:12","slug":"london-leads-uk-shift-on-return-to-office-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1082901\/","title":{"rendered":"London leads UK shift on return to office working"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roughly one in three London workers have faced increased office attendance requirements over the past year, according to a national survey.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The poll of 2,000 people by commercial property company FI Property Group found 36% of workers in the capital said their employer had increased the number of days they were expected to attend the workplace.<\/p>\n

This compares with 26% of respondents nationally, suggesting the push to bring staff back into offices has been stronger in London than elsewhere in the UK.<\/p>\n

Across the country, 83% of those surveyed said they now worked from an office for at least three days each week, while 49% reported attending five days a week.<\/p>\n

Almost half of respondents, 48%, said they were most productive in an office, compared with 26% who said they worked most effectively at home.<\/p>\n

Office-based workers also reported feeling more connected to their colleagues.<\/p>\n

More than three-quarters, 79%, said they felt closest to their team when working in person.<\/p>\n

Social interaction appeared to be one of the main attractions of office life, with 57% of respondents selecting banter with colleagues as a benefit.<\/p>\n

Face-to-face meetings were valued by 33%, while 32% said attending the workplace helped them feel connected to their company\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

Almost a third, 31%, valued having a dedicated working environment.<\/p>\n

Tim Knowles, founder and managing director of FI Property Group, said: \u201cWhat\u2019s clear from our new survey is that the office is definitely back.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want human interaction and feel more productive and more connected in an office environment \u2013 whether that\u2019s full-time or as part of a hybrid working arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings also indicated employees\u2019 expectations of their workplaces have risen since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

More than two-thirds of respondents aged under 30, 68%, said they now expected more from an office than they did before Covid-19, compared with 52% nationally.<\/p>\n

An on-site caf\u00e9 or access to food was the most popular improvement which could encourage employees to attend more frequently, selected by 29% of respondents.<\/p>\n

Workers said they would be prepared to travel for an average of 39 minutes to reach an office that met their expectations.<\/p>\n

Knowles said: \u201cFrom our previous research we know that people now demand more of their office space so it matches or betters the home workspace in terms of comfort and facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformation we\u2019ve taken on board when designing our latest office developments such as 1 Newbridge Square in Swindon and 58 Clarendon Road in Watford.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the survey also found that employees continued to value the flexibility offered by home working.<\/p>\n

More than half, 53%, cited being able to dress casually as a benefit, while 45% valued completing household tasks such as putting on a wash.<\/p>\n

A further 44% said avoiding commuting costs was an advantage.<\/p>\n

Television and household chores were identified as the most common distractions at home, each selected by 33% of respondents.<\/p>\n

Children were cited by 32%, followed by social media at 29%.<\/p>\n

FI Property Group manages commercial property across the office, industrial and retail sectors.<\/p>\n

Featured image credit: FI Property Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roughly one in three London workers have faced increased office attendance requirements over the past year, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1082902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,296232,4884,257,50171,296233,167375,16,15,11143],"class_list":["post-1082901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-fi-property-group","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-office","tag-office-attendance","tag-office-workers","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-work-from-home"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1082901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1082902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1082901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1082901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1082901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}