Britons return to work on first Monday after WFH order was axed

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Commuters headed back into the office today on the first Monday morning since working from home guidance was lifted after Boris Johnson told government departments to prepare staff for a return to the workplace.

Photographs showed the Jubilee line on the London Underground looking busy as the morning rush hour got underway at 7am, with passengers also packing platforms waiting for Overground trains at Canada Water station.

London Victoria and London Bridge also looked busy this morning – although this was a contrast to the empty streets of Westminster at a similar time which suggested many civil servants are continuing to work from home.

Transport for London said there were 1.06million entry and exits on the Underground up to 10am this morning – a rise of 6 per cent compared to last Monday and 45 per cent of normal pre-pandemic levels. On buses up to 10am, there were 1.17million boarding taps – up 1 per cent compared to last Monday and 69 per cent of normal levels.

At Tube stations with close links to the City of London, such as Mansion House, Aldgate, Canary Wharf and Holborn, there were 95,400 entries and exits this morning, which represents only 31 per cent of normal demand. 

And at shopping-related Underground stations such as Stratford, Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus, there were 102,400 entries and exits this morning, which represents 46 per cent of normal demand.

Across the whole of last Friday, 2.12million Tube journeys were made, which is just above 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels and up around 11 per cent week-on-week. On the buses last Friday, 4.53million journeys were made, which is 73 per cent of pre-pandemic levels and up around 2 per cent week-on-week.

At weekends, Tube and bus ridership is closer to pre-pandemic levels with the Tube reaching 1.92million journeys on Saturday – 64 per cent per cent of pre-pandemic levels – and some specific times of the day reaching close to 75 per cent. Some 3.5million bus journeys made on Saturday – around three quarters of pre-pandemic levels.

But road congestion data today showed the level during the Monday morning rush hour in London was actually down on the same time last week, at 68 per cent for 8am to 9am today compared to 69 per cent last Monday.

The TomTom figures also showed today was the second quietest day on London’s roads in the past six weekdays, but it was roughly in line with the 69 per cent on December 6 – the last Monday before WFH guidance came in. 

Birmingham was also quieter today from 8am to 9am compared to last Monday – at 56 per cent today, down from 67 per cent. Congestion was, however, up week-on-week in Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle. 

The figures for the 8am to 9am slot in London were in contrast to the 7am and 8am period which was at 46 per cent today, up from 44 per cent at the same time last week and the highest on a Monday since December 6. 

It comes amid fresh attempts to end the working-from-home culture in Whitehall by ordering employees to get back to their desks after the Prime Minister ended the working from home guidance last Wednesday.

Union leaders have branded the proposals ‘reckless’, and senior officials vowed to keep a large number of their staff working from home permanently with only a tiny minority of civil servants at their desks. 

The final Plan B restrictions of Covid passports for larger venues and face masks in indoor areas will both be lifted on Thursday – but the latter will remain in place on Transport for London trains as a ‘condition of carriage’.

It means Tube passengers can no longer be fined for not wearing a mask, but can be denied entry. London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: ‘Just a reminder to those travelling back into the office today—it’s still mandatory to wear a mask on all TfL services unless you’re exempt. If you’re using public transport, respect the rules. Wear your mask.’ 

Meanwhile the Daily Telegraph revealed concerns that the return to the office could be held up by reduced train services with 21 of the UK’s 28 rail operators on an ‘amended timetable’ or having halted their trains altogether.

Some 13 networks including Avanti West Coast, South Western Railway, CrossCounty and Great Western Railway are running reduced services ‘until further notice’ while the Gatwick Express is completely suspended.

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT union, told of a ‘serious danger that temporary arrangements to cope with the pandemic are going to become ‘baked in and institutionalised’ if operators continue to cut services.

Also this morning, there was disruption on London Overground services due a fault on a train at Highbury and Islington station, while a points failure at Wimbledon was causing disruption to journeys in South London.

Elsewhere, services in Wales were affected by a points failure between Cardiff Central and Radyr via Ninian Park, while commuters in the West Midlands were delayed by an object caught on the electric wires at Tame Bridge Parkway. In Scotland, a fault with the signalling system at Inverness was resulting in delays of up to 30 minutes.

Clive Watson, chairman of the City Pub Company, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that sales at his pubs were ‘almost non-existent’ at the start of January but had been building back to normal levels over the past ten days. 

Speaking about more people returning to the office, Mr Watson said: ‘I think we’ve got to remember about people going back to the office, it’s not just to help the hospitality industry, it’s to help everyone in the office.

‘Every junior staff needs a mentor, every junior staff needs to be able to go to someone in the office to help with their roles, and they can’t really do that from home. I think it builds up that culture within a business as well.

‘I think you can bring in a bit of flexibility to the office-work life, but it’s very important for office workers’ mental wellbeing as well to be back in the office and working alongside their colleagues.’ 

But Paul Novak, deputy general secretary at the Trades Union Congress, said the ‘language’ surrounding the return to work from the Government had been ‘unhelpful’.  

He told BBC Radio 4: ‘It is important to remember that millions of people have been working in the workplaces as normal during the pandemic, if you work in a supermarket, or a care home or in a factory.

‘But there will be significant numbers of people starting to return to the office from this week, and I think what’s really important actually is rather than blanket mandates or unhelpful language about shirkers getting back to the office, employers have sensible conversations with their staff about how that return will happen, over what timescale, people’s preferred patterns of working and crucially what can employers do to give people confidence that their workplace is Covid secure and is as safe as possible.’

The return to work comes after it emerged civil servants claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds for home office equipment after the remote working guidance was scrapped last year.

Taxpayers paid out almost £730,000 in expenses between July 19 and early December – when ministers were no longer asking staff to avoid the office.

Now figures released under freedom of information laws lay bare the extent of home working last year when curbs had been relaxed.

HMRC spent more than £540,000 on 7,566 home office equipment expenses claims, while the Cabinet Office paid out more than £100,000.

And the Department of Health spent £50,000 while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs paid £23,000.

Others refused to reveal how much they had spent on office equipment expenses claims, citing cost grounds. 

The total of those that provided figures was around £729,000.

Ministers removed the guidance to work from home on July 19 last year but reinstated it on December 8 to tackle the spread of Omicron.

A government spokesman said: ‘Departments have the flexibility to make their own decisions on individual working arrangements in order to meet their staff requirements.’

HMRC said it would make ‘no apology for ensuring that our colleagues have the equipment which they need to deliver for the UK and our customers’. 

Meanwhile, Nadhim Zahawi said today that it was the ‘right decision’ to remove the guideline for pupils in England to wear face coverings in classrooms.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the Education Secretary said: ‘I trust headteachers to do the right thing, I work very closely with them and I’m proud of that – I work very closely with directors of public health.

‘Headteachers and teachers will agree that wearing masks in classrooms actually causes a communication challenge and a learning challenge, which is why I didn’t want them to be in the classroom a day longer than necessary.

‘When the scientists told us that the peak had been reached on Omicron – and we are seeing a plateauing and a real reduction, for example, in ICU numbers – then it is the right decision we made to take that guideline away.’

Asked whether there would be any sanctions for headteachers who continue to mandate mask-wearing in classrooms, he replied: ‘No, I will work with headteachers to support them where we can.’

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab urged NHS staff in England who have not had their mandatory Covid-19 vaccines to do so amid calls for the deadline to be delayed.

Mr Raab played down suggestions the April 1 deadline could be postponed while NHS representatives have warned the policy could force thousands of frontline workers to leave their roles at a time when patient demand is high. 

Frontline staff in England must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with two jabs by April 1 – meaning they must have had their first dose by February 3.

Mr Raab argued that the deadline does not need postponing because the NHS recruitment drive since 2020 has improved the service’s ‘resilience’.

And Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he would not ‘rule out’ recruiting workers who lose their jobs in England.

The Department for Health and Social Care’s (DHSC’s) impact assessment warns 73,000 NHS staff in England could be lost.