‘No substitute for face-to-face contact’, says government’s WFH review

The Tory MP conducting a government review into the future of work has warned there is “no substitute for human face-to-face contact” in at least some parts of most jobs. Matt Warman, the former digital minister asked by Boris Johnson to consider the changing landscape of employment, said the jury was “still out” on whether staff were more productive in the office or at home. Warman insisted that ministers’ disquiet over working from home was more “a concern about productivity” than about the location. The challenge for the government, Warman said, was mitigating the impact of a decline in commuters on urban centres, and other “unintended consequences of businesses making decisions that are right for them”. His words follow claims that the Bank of England is allowing staff to work from home four days a week, drawing criticism from a Conservative former cabinet minister. Liam Fox told the Daily Mail the bank should be doing all it could to help the economy and that it seemed “strange” that staff were largely not in their place of work. The Times (£) Daily Mail