Hybrid role (inc travel to London HQ) Expenses?

[yoshiblue]

I am NW based and starting to look at the job market for a new role.

There are a lot of hybrid roles available which would provide a mix of WFH with some travel into a London head office e.g. 1-2 days per fortnight. The main benefit of going for a role like this is the variety of companies that have a London HQ compared to where I am in the NW.

I have a couple of friends that now have similar arrangements. In both cases they are paying for their own travel to London, plus hotel/food expenses.

I wanted to ask who else is currently operating in a similar arrangement and if you have successfully negotiated a business to pay some of these costs?

In doing some reading up from a tax perspective, a London HQ would still be classed as a 'permanent place of work' so travel is seen as commuting costs. However, HMRC say you can claim personal tax relief on hotel/food/drink etc.

I therefore wondered if anyone had managed to get an employer at least to pay all overnight expenses? I work in an industry where my skill set is in demand, so its good to know if this may be negotiable or not.

Thanks kindly in advance.

Could you cost it up and work out what it would be per year, then negotiate your salary based on that?

Yes I will be doing that, I think I was trying to gauge how much I could push re expenses!

We do pay travel expenses for staff who live up north and do a job that requires them to come to London every month or so. At one point we paid for a weekly hotel. But I don’t know if many businesses would if someone voluntarily applied for a role so far from their office. In my case the guy had a permanent base in the midlands but had staff in London too. If he just applied for a London job but lived in the midlands they aren’t going to pay for his travel to work. I mean you could ask, but I wouldn’t bank on many places saying yes, not unless they really wanted you

Thanks @Darbs76 yes, agree it's ok when your permanent base is near where you live then you travel to London occasionally. That is what I do at the moment and all costs are covered.

There just seem to be so many jobs that are 'hybrid' with London as the only office.

In my industry there are also 100% remote roles where you never have to travel anywhere.

Lots to think about!

Yes might be worth considering it even if you have to travel. Our 40% is flexible over 3 months, so could in theory do a week in every day and then nothing for a few weeks, but guess that will vary according to the business. Our company is strict on the 40% too whereas maybe others are more flexible. Maybe worth negotiating it based on salary as someone else suggested by asking for a higher salary to account for hotel / train costs