Guest blog: A vision of the future - By Michael Hardware - Deputy Cabinet Member for Economic Development - Essex County Council

The restrictions introduced to counter the spread of Covid-19 have been dramatic. They have completely changed our way of life with many people having to work from home, some experiencing this for the first time. Many have been surprised and feel this could be a vision of the future; an opportunity to promote change and modernise the way we work, perhaps even a second industrial revolution.

This takes me back to 2006 when I helped run Work Wise UK which aimed to get more people working ‘smarter’: working from home, working remotely, mobile working and flexible working.

Work Wise UK was viewed as a success with some increases in the number of people home working, but it remained a very small proportion of the working population. At the time, it was thought smarter working had been pushed as far as it could go. The obstacles to a larger take-up were too difficult: long standing and deep-rooted working practices and general mistrust of technology.

Second industrial revolution

Now working from home has been forced upon us and almost all have been surprised at how easy the transition has been. The technology has worked and been straightforward to use. But will this lead to a second industrial revolution?

It is clear that a large proportion of the working population can work from home, and many are finding it more productive. For those who normally commute to work, the travel time is an immediate saving – even a couple of days a week could typically free up the equivalent of an entire working day.

Then we have business meetings. Although we have embraced email in recent years, we still insist on travelling miles to meet people face-to-face as that is seen as the traditional way of doing business – the ’whites of their eyes’ and all. But the likes of MS Teams and Zoom have changed all that: you can talk face-to-face without moving from your sofa.

So, yes, it is likely that after this pandemic, we will be working more from home and having less physical meetings. But what impact is that going to have?

Less travelling. Even working from home one or two days a week and holding some virtual meetings will have a significant impact on our roads and public transport. It will also potentially make us all more productive, which is an issue this country does need to urgently address as it has been falling for years despite great steps in technology.

The other growth area during the pandemic has been home delivery, again through necessity rather than choice. We have been getting everything delivered, and the systems for this have coped very well with the massive growth of demand. Again, if this continues, we are looking at less trips to the shops, further reducing local traffic congestion.

The other two benefits of these enforced changes have led to have been environmental and in our own wellbeing, and these are potentially massive. Less travel means less carbon emissions and less pollution. Less time spent travelling, whether on public transport or on roads, reduces stress levels and improves our wellbeing. Working from home itself is also less stressful, although currently that may not be the case with worries about the pandemic and home-schooling children.

The new norm

As we come out of this pandemic, there is a huge opportunity to make fundamental changes to the way we work and the way we live. It is an opportunity that needs to be propagated by government and local councils, encouraging companies and individuals to continue these different ways of working, and planning for them to become the norm in future.

How would this be achieved? In the short term there needs to be a campaign to promote the benefits of these new ways of working – not only will these continue to protect people from coronavirus but the productivity, environmental and wellbeing benefits must also be highlighted.

In the longer term, these new ways of working should be designed into our new communities. There are massive development plans around the country including numerous new garden communities. These could be designed taking into consideration more homeworking and home delivery instead of focusing on the motor car and shopping destinations.

Working from home involves changes in home configuration with space needed for working, not just one but perhaps for two people. Broadband needs to be adequate, together with technology built into the home. Working from home is also rather lonely so there needs to be community facilities, such as coffee shops, where people can go and continue to work but have some social interaction and support.

The focus away from the motor car is more controversial, as we tend to be wedded to our cars. Communities should be built around open spaces and connectivity and not the motor car. Using the car for short journeys to the shops and elsewhere should be discouraged through design (routes and parking), focusing instead on reliable public transport or other means (cycling and walking). Homes should remain accessible, however, for home deliveries and removals.

Shopping is similarly controversial. If the increased level of home deliveries continues most retail outlets are likely to suffer. But many people still like to go shopping, and ideally these shops all need to be in one place – the town or city centre may well see a resurgence as the central place those who want to go shopping can go, and then the decline of town and city edge retail parks, becoming instead warehouses to run home deliveries perhaps.

These are just of a few of the considerations that should be thought about but there needs to be debate now as to the future of communities, what they will be like and what we should be doing now to prepare for them.

Work Wise UK

Perhaps we have seen a vision of the future, we just need to grasp the opportunities it has revealed.  Work Wise UK with its universal support from both employer and employee bodies, and its experience over the last 16 years, is ideally placed to take up the mantle.

Michael Hardware is Deputy Cabinet Member for Economic Development at Essex County Council. He is also an Associate Director at Chelgate Limited, the PR consultancy which helped promote Work Wise UK between 2006 and 2011.