Scotland’s workers staying at home in droves

Scots are failing to return to offices after working from home, leading to “hollowed out high streets”, business leaders have warned. Official data shows there were 544,000 more people working from home in the first three months of this year than in the final quarter of 2019. The Office for National Statistics said there were 267,000 home workers in the period from October to December 2019 and that total had grown to 811,000 at the start of 2022. The increase of 204% compares with a UK average rise of 109%. Ewan MacDonald-Russell, the head of policy for the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “Scottish retail footfall languished 15.8% below pre-pandemic levels last month, the worst in the UK, and we’ve consistently noted the shift to homeworking as a key driver of this trend.” The Times (£)