Is it true Jeremy Hunt wants us back in the office as he's a commercial landlord in Central London?

[ssd]

Is this correct?

The thing about co-working hubs is it assumes your colleagues and bosses will be co-working in them with you. Which they won't given their size and the geographical spread of London.
Commuting to a space where you know no one else and cannot discuss your work for confidentiality reasons does not replicate the work place at all. It merely means your desk isn't a kitchen table/in the order of your bedroom anymore.
My work is starting to see increasing signs of mental health issues in the workforce, particularly in younger people, those that live alone and those juggling childcare for younger kids. Going out to work was a definite positive for those people.
Our employer has already said we won't be returning until at least March next year, whatever Boris is telling us to do. For us, meeting with colleagues for work is as sackable offence.

Regardless of what Jeremy Hunt wants or doesn’t want.........
I’m currently visiting London for a few days. I cannot believe how deserted the streets/underground are (weekend has been a little busier). I’m in my 60’s, somewhat overweight and have severe asthma so perhaps at more risk than many, but have realised that we have to start trying to get back to something approaching ‘normal’ life. Currently we are sleepwalking our way to economic disaster.

Yes, COVID has exposed this.

Our economy has been built on sand for ages. Reliant on people buying overpriced shit that they can't afford and being good little consumers, while being otherwise judged for being skint/in debt.

There are loads of co-working hubs that people can use. They were closed during lockdown but there's no need to balance a laptop at the end of your bed now.

That solves the space to work/separating work from home issue....it doesnt solve being sociable with co workers, (unless all of them are in the same hub....which seems unlikely otherwise they would have their own dedicated space) bouncing ideas off each other shadowing someone else and learning from others if you are new...

I've worked in a job where colleagues have a mixture of working in the workspace and wfh (usually 2-3 days) for years and everyone says they're more productive at home but wouldnt want the solitude 5 days a week. It's not an office environment and never requires any meetings so if you're working at home you could potentially not speak to someone all day.

According to reports, Jeremy Hunt's commercial property is in Fulham, so not really Central London. He also owns 7 flats in a 'luxury' apartment block in Southampton - which presumably will be more desirable if young professionals work from home in Southampton rather than London.

People saying that central London property is owned by pension funds. That’s all of us, you know? If the cities centres fade, it will affect everyone of us. I find it weird people don’t understand this.

I've worked in a job where colleagues have a mixture of working in the workspace and wfh (usually 2-3 days) for years and everyone says they're more productive at home but wouldnt want the solitude 5 days a week.

I'd happily work from home all week but I recognise it's not really healthy and it's better to be in the office at least some of the time and get out of a comfort zone. I've always hated 5 days a week in the office full time though. It's too much for a lot of introverts.

The government needs people to be herded together in stressful cramped conditions with unpleasant commutes to make them unhappy so that they need to buy coffees, pastries and Nik naks to cheer them up

People saying that central London property is owned by pension funds. That’s all of us, you know? If the cities centres fade, it will affect everyone of us. I find it weird people don’t understand this

....and at one stage, pension funds had interests in british car manufacturers, steel ship building...etc we all survived.

CV hasn't gone away, official figures show around 1800 daily infections, double that of a few weeks ago, france is around 9000, we may well reach these levels (and beyond) as work, schools and universities open up.

Advocating a return to offices as we go into winter is beyond stupid but then again, that sums up this governments decision making process.... allow foreign travel into the UK at the height of the pandemic but introduce blanket quarantines with relatively low levels of infection.

Re: the pensions fund thing- I don’t think some people realise just how much most funds are dependent on the performance of business, industries and large property portfolios. This pandemic has highlighted the alarming fact that so many people haven’t got the foggiest about how the economy works and it’s importance to our overall health and well-being. It’s not all about protecting the Prets and Starbucks of this world or any one individual’s vested interest. People advocating for shutting ourselves up forever due to Covid are in for rude awakening when things really start to bite.

"UK lags behind Europe on returning to office"

"Office workers in the UK have been comparatively slow to return to their desks in relation to employees in Europe, now lockdown has eased."

"According to analysis from US bank Morgan Stanley’s research unit AlphaWise, only one-third (34%) of UK white-collar employees are commuting again, well off the pace of their European counterparts, where almost three-quarters of staff (68%) have done so."

"In France–the leading European country among returnees–83% of office staff have returned, whereas in Spain, Italy and Germany three-quarters (around 75%) are now heading back in."

"Morgan Stanley’s figures–accurate for mid-July–also showed that workers in London were far more likely to continue to work remotely than their counterparts in other European capitals including the Paris region, Madrid, Berlin or Rome.

"In Paris only 26% of workers, and in Barcelona just 22% had not returned to their workplace, whereas in London 69% had not done so. Half (49%) of London office workers were working from home for five days a week, whereas in Madrid the figure was 33% and 30%, researchers found."

www.personneltoday.com/hr/uk-lags-behind-europe-on-returning-to-office/

@drivinmecrazy

Couldn't possibly comment but I shall. I've been spending the summer months in another country that we must quarantine when returning from. Our neigbour is a government advisor who has frequently been visiting his second home, he with agreement from his 'colleagues' that he should be exempt from an expectation to return to his desk at Conservative HQ. He also tells me that he needs the break because he's spent months pouring over scientific papers and deciding what needs to be disregarded to fulfil party policies. Nice bloke (not). He also helped spearhead the Brexit campaign but fortunately can continue to enjoy all the benefits of a second home while preaching policy to everyone else. Obviously he's not Cummings but not terribly far from it. I was never a supporter of this government but sitting here listening his pontification has galvanised my opinions quite firmly. That is all!!!

Very interesting, are you able to say a little bit more....👀

Yes, pension funds invest in commercial property, but it usually only makes up a small proportion of a diversified fund - mostly between 5 and 10%.
And not all of it will be in Central London office space, it will be spread throughout the country and also comprise retail units, warehousing and other types of commercial property.

Companies will be dropping their leases for city centre office space at the first possible moment unless the rents drop by half, or more. They will keep a tiny fraction of their current space for in-person meetings or to see clients (once COVID is controlled enough to allow even that). Why wouldn’t they? Office rents are a massive expense and they have found that they can live and even thrive without it. It’s going to be a massive change to the way we live and work. City centre residential prices (sale or rent) will plummet. The thousands of high rise shoebox buy to lets that have sprung up all over Leeds and Manchester (and probably elsewhere but I don’t know those areas) will be worthless. Maybe rents will drop enough to make life a little easier for the worst-off. Probably not, though. Commercial and big-portfolio residential landlords have shown they’d prefer empty properties to lower rents. It will take punitive taxation on empty units to change that.

He seems to own around half of Bedford House, Fulham.

This is 60,000 square feet so I guess his half is worth £20 million or so.

I imagine that as Fulham is a residential area more than the West End/City, that the value of this would not be impacted as much by covid.

Also as he's a back-bench MP, you'd have to be a bit of an insane conspiracy loon to think that shoring up the trillions of pounds of London property value and various businesses was done directly at his behest, as opposed to preventing the general collapse of the economy.

It will take punitive taxation on empty units to change that
So bring it on then.... Do you not think?
We need to raise taxes to pay for the economic damage caused by covid, we also need affordable housing, what's not to like?

@Heffalooomia oh absolutely I’m all for it. I just can’t see the current Tory government doing it. I’d love to be wrong.

[quote CoffeeandCroissant]Here you go:
publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/200901/hunt_jeremy.htm[/quote]
Thanks for linking @CoffeeandCroissant. Now everyone can see what a self serving individual he is, what with having his speaking fees paid directly to charities.

can't see the current Tory government...
it certainly wouldn't be their preferred option but maybe circumstances will force their hand🤞

@EvilPea

I saw a brilliant tweet the other day about how the environment is doing so much better because of less commuting and planes, people having a better work life balance and less stress managing “having it all”, moving and living in housing they can afford.

But the tories are saying get back to work to buy your £12 pret lunch.

Whilst I really don’t want the economy to suffer and I don’t want people to lose their jobs. I’m also Aware that we are at a climate tipping point and this is a good opportunity to change it. Other businesses would spring up through new needs and ultimately we are all fucked if we continue down this path

Not everyone has a better work life balance and less stress do to lock down! I'm working in my living room at the dining table. My laptop and screen are always there as I have nowhere else to put them and I know there are people far worse off than me. I feel like I'm permanently in the office. Working from home must be great of you've got the space but not all of us do! Thankfully my company wants us back in the office, gradually to start with but at least is something as I have no idea what I would do if I had to live like this permanently.

Why do we care so little about the jobs of retail, hospitality and transport workers?

Let's get everyone back to work then. Get concerts back, live performers, open up football stadiums, nightclubs etc.

Office workers who are working from home anyway (i.e not furloughed) is the obsession though in getting them back to their open plan office, where it would be impossible to socially distance if everyone did return.

Interesting to see no one has argued it can't be true as the government is far too moral to be so self-serving.

We're social distancing in our office. We've been split into 2 teams and have a rota for going into the office. We have a one way system, only one person allowed in the toilets and kitchen, wearing masks when away from our desks, more cleaning products than Tesco. I would rather do that than carry on as we are and I'm sure a lot of other companies could do similar if they wanted to.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

Similar with ours, except there's no expectations with masks and it's nice to have a bit of personal space in the office as the desks are on top of each other, but it's one person to each bank of desks.

The governments own departments are the same with social distancing (and the house of commons itself).

IMO social distancing in offices should remain in place until the day the House of Commons is full again. You've got MP's going on about 'get back to the office' from a Zoom call in their own home, or in the Commons with about 10 people in.

Why do we care so little about the jobs of retail hospitality and transport workers
I think the question to ask is 'why are we not acknowledging that retail hospitality and transport are no longer viable'
They rely on crowding people into indoor spaces, the most risky conditions for covid transmission, and even with those economies of scale the wages are low, if these sectors are to be covid compliant revenues will drop considerably there will be no profit to pay workers.