The new Lord Mayor of London today urged businesses to get more staff back to their desks as it was revealed the City remains half empty and as much as 80 per cent of UK office space is still not being used.
Big businesses have even started offering 'goodies' such as free breakfast and lunch as well as beer and wine at the end of the day to encourage workers to come back after the easing of lockdown restrictions failed to prompt a mass return.
A recent survey found that the majority of people now want a 'hybrid' of office and working from home with big businesses including NatWest concluding that five days in the office for most staff is over.
Many of these hybrid working staff have been branded 'TWaTs' - because they only commute in Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday - amid claims fewer than one in five workers have returned to their offices despite the vaccination rollout and fewer Covid-19 deaths compared to a year ago.
Vincent Keaveny, who is also a partner at international law firm DLA Piper LLP, will be installed as the 693rd Lord Mayor of London today, and is urging businesses to keep pushing for workers to come in.
He said: 'The City is coming back to life. It's a really important thing for the younger people in our sector to get the training they need, creativity and the collegially that being back in the office together brings.
'The buzz around the office is fantastic. I think every company is coming at this from a different angle - and we won't be telling them how to do it - but the pubs, bars and restaurants are really busy now. The City is there and we would love to see more people coming back'.
Lord Mayor of London elect Vincent Keaveny said today that staff who go back to the office will benefit from the 'buzz' of being with colleagues
Recent data shows that the City of London remains half as busy as it was before the pandemic and office space out of London is even quieter
A study by Orbital Insight, a California-based firm able to monitor movement of people through satellites and mobile phone data, found that the most recent data for London, the City was half full compared to before the pandemic.
In mid-October the Square Mile was at 51% of February 2020 levels while Canary Wharf, home to HSBC and JP Morgan, was at 59%. Wall Street in New York was slightly higher at 66%.
While traders at many banks are now in five days a week, anecdotally, the majority of of staff are in for no more than two days a week.
In order to ease people in, HSBC rolled out 'refresher weeks' for employees returning to the office, to tease people away from working at home. They still require employees to book a desk in advance for "internal track and trace purposes" and while there is no diktat to return, internally staff are being encouraged to come back in at least one day a week.
As social distancing between desks and in lifts was scrapped, Goldman Sachs said recently that around 50% of its 6,000 London staff were back at its Plumtree Court headquarters.
While JPMorgan, the world's biggest investment bank, said around 40% of London employees were coming into the office.
The ability to save money while at home and avoiding packed trains and Tubes are cited as the main reason for staying at home, especially
