Hybrid working could actually boost numbers working in cities

The shift to flexible working could actually lead to more staff heading to Britain’s cities. The City of London will be bolstered by another 100,000 workers after Covid, while cities such as Newcastle and Leeds could become new “mega hubs”, according to research by KPMG. The seeming contradiction will be caused by an increasing number of firms looking to take space in city centres for hubs, it said. The decades-old trend towards bigger offices in taller buildings will be replaced by a focus on smaller offices, freeing up space for far more businesses to open sites in previously expensive and crowded locations. Cities such as Manchester and Birmingham are likely to become “mega hubs” with between 5% and 10% more people working there, while the City could swell by more than 20% from its pre-Covid level. KPMG predicts that small and mid-sized towns will lose out, as people who previously worked locally instead split their time between home and a central office. The Telegraph (£)