Nearly 60% of office desks will be unusable post-lockdown

Nearly two thirds (60%) of all desks in the country will be unusable under the government’s return to work measures, Colliers International says. The agent’s Office Social Distancing Calculator, a tool that calculates the number of usable workstations and the number of people that can be safely accommodated in the office at the same time, shows that almost 8m people will be unable to return to the office once government lifts lockdown measures owing to a lack of usable desks. Roughly 60% of the country’s 11.8m desks will be unusable when a 6ft gap between staff is introduced. The agent said companies may need to redesign their office space to create banks of four desks, as opposed to the normal six or eight desks, when lockdown restrictions are lifted. Jan Jaap Boogaard, head of Colliers’ Workplace Advisory Services in EMEA, said: ““With regard to the government’s upcoming guidelines to get people back to a Covid-secure workplace, we expect there will still need to be significant tailoring and adaptation of the plans in order to ensure a safe, practical and secure environment. “Returning to working in offices won’t be a ‘one size fits all’ solution.” To send feedback, e-mail lucy.alderson@egi.co.uk or tweet @LucyAJourno or @estatesgazette Photo: SEM VAN DER WAL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock