UK workers’ return to the office has picked up pace as the country’s latest Covid-19 lockdown restrictions start to lift.
Last week saw occupancy levels in UK offices at almost 45% of the pre-pandemic norm, according to a study from Metrikus, which makes software that tracks how many people are in a building.
That figure is the highest that Metrikus has recorded since March 2020, and marks three months of growing office occupancy as restrictions have eased. The second and third weeks of April saw similar levels of occupancy to last September.
Michael Grant, chief operations officer at Metrikus, said: “Occupancy levels in the UK’s offices are now back to where they were in September 2020 – but what lies ahead is uncharted territory. We are watching closely to see whether the trend of growth of around 1.7 index points per week that we have seen since the end of February will continue to gradually accelerate.”
Grant added: “This peak comes a week ahead of our previous best guess, which was that offices would return to levels last seen in September 2020 by the beginning of May. Rather than spikes that track specific events, such as the return of children to school, the steady growth in the index seems to show that the gradual lifting of restrictions has slowly increased the appetite for some workers to return to the office.”
To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@egi.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @estatesgazette
