Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said: “I would get rid of it (WFH) now. People have got to be encouraged back into the office.
“The infrastructure in London is desperately in need of people going back to the office — shops, small food outlets, restaurants, entertainment — all these things that make London vibrant are all flat at the moment.”
Make up your mind, I thought it was all the stabbings that did that?!
Sir Bob Neill, Tory MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, said WFH guidance should go by January 26 “at the latest and earlier if hospitalisations continue to decline”.
He told the Standard: “The hospitality and retail sectors in central London are being crippled and, thanks to the success of the vaccine campaign, albeit that we have more to do there, we must be planning to move steadily back to normality as soon as possible.”
Why 'must' we be planning that? What if WFH is the new normal? What if workers aren't the only ones to benefit?
Ros Morgan, chief executive of the Heart of London Business Alliance, said: “Work from home guidance has hollowed out the centre of London and meant that our businesses and cultural venues had a really difficult December — an option for office workers to come back would bring a much-needed boost to our capital. Central London stands ready to welcome people back — so let’s remove the barriers as soon as we can and help bring London back to life.”
Everyone seems to be forgetting that these services grew up in the first place to service a need - if the need diminishes because the working culture is changing, then they need to adapt to serve the new need or die out. Not demand that workers and firms regress to serve them up with a captive market.
That's not capitalism, and it's certainly not progress either.
9 comments:
They are so dim that they don't see what we in the real world see - same old same old. Hospitality and leisure all over the country have been deliberately destroyed but now it's affecting the nation's armpit it's suddenly important. 4cough.
I don't see why it has anything to do with politicians either way.
I would think they would all want to get back to work asap. If a job can be done from home, it can be done from India
The people who work in London need the same incentives as the hard working "members" of both Houses who make all sorts of sacrifices to make London so vibrant.
I will not list the incentives the Honourables get. I do not know the half of them.
Who wants to commute to work in London or any city if you can just roll out of the shower, dress and hit the computer? Saves lots of time driving to stations and buying tickets and the time travelling and the car park fees. Win/win. Pop to the local for a pie and a pint or fix one for yourself at home.
And while all this is going on, nightMayor Khan is crippling drivers in London, and twonking around with 'security', in his personal big gas-guzzler to create more mayhem!
Luckily I'll never, ever have to go to London again, having worked and slurped there for many years, but IDS needs to understand now that nobody really needs to work there again!
Tough, eh?
The problem isn't only govt depts in Central London. The economy is so screwed up in the UK that often Local Authorities, County Councils and so on, are often the largest employers in some areas, especially rural areas.
LA's have enthusiastically pushed wfh as they are seeking to bolster their creaking finances by cutting accommodation costs and selling off their property portfolios. This can have a severe effect on a town centre, where staff from County Hall provided the bulk of the lunchtime foot traffic.
I don't see how WFH is tenable long-term. I see how comfortable it is for those already established in their careers, but would anyone seriously suggest that newcomers to the workforce (especially youngsters) can be properly inducted and socialised into their roles remotely via Zoom, etc? This does somewhat smack of people pulling up the ladder behind them to me.
"Hospitality and leisure all over the country have been deliberately destroyed but now it's affecting the nation's armpit it's suddenly important."
I think, inevitably, the old model of hospitality industries is going to have to change to survive. It was in a precarious state ourtside the capital even before the Covid panic...
"I don't see why it has anything to do with politicians either way."
Nothing was ever improved by having them meddle, was it?
"I would think they would all want to get back to work asap. If a job can be done from home, it can be done from India"
Good point, but what people here could offer would be 'local' knowledge. And language skills!
"I will not list the incentives the Honourables get. I do not know the half of them."
If our office canteen was half as good as the one in the HoC I'd be in the office a LOT more!
"Win/win. Pop to the local for a pie and a pint or fix one for yourself at home."
Indeed! I've saved a fortune and seen my work rate go up!
"And while all this is going on, nightMayor Khan is crippling drivers in London..."
It's absolutely the wrong thing to do, so inevitably, it's what he's doing. The man's a menace.
"The problem isn't only govt depts in Central London. "
No, indeed, good point. But forcing people into the centre of anywhere to artificially prop up service industries is the wrong way round. Let the service industries evolve.
"...but would anyone seriously suggest that newcomers to the workforce (especially youngsters) can be properly inducted and socialised into their roles remotely via Zoom, etc? "
Yes, it can be done, since that generation lives their life online already, by choice. One young worker in my team joined us one week and a half before lockdown - she's not really suffered from not being physically 'with us'.
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