Inner London could lose over 800,000 jobs post Covid-19
Two out of five people living and working in Inner London could do their jobs elsewhere, as workers adapt to new ways of working prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Analysis of official Government data by Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA), the global management consultancy, indicates that as many as 835,000 roles could be relocated away from the 14 boroughs1 that make up Inner London.
AWA has worked with numerous organisations – from charities to global tech giants – to help them adapt to the changes in the approach to the workplace for both employees and employers prompted by the adaption to Covid-19 restrictions. Based on this work, AWA has analysed which jobs need to be based in Inner London – with the work associated with roles in healthcare, education and skilled trades unlikely to be relocated, while customer service, administration, managerial and a significant amount of civil service work could be to moved outside Inner London.
AWA has assigned a likelihood that work can be relocated to data from the Office of National Statistics NOMIS dataset of all jobs in each location in the UK. On this basis it is estimated that 835,000 roles could move out of Inner London, some 41% of the current workforce.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has shown organisations and their employees what can be done in different ways and places than they’ve traditionally been configured, and raises all sorts of questions about how we organise work in the future,” said Andrew Mawson, founder of AWA. “Employers will wonder whether they need as much expensive Inner London office space, and workers will question whether they need to spend time and money commuting if they don’t need to.
“This raises important questions for business and policymakers about their location strategies, property needs, and transport planning. It may prompt a rethink of the role of central London in the longer term.”
To read AWA’s report ‘The Future of Work In Inner London’ click here.
Add your comment
- Administration 1
- Building Design, Planning, Development 1
- Catering 2
- Construction 4
- Contracts, Projects, Bids 2
- Energy Management 1
- Engineering, Maintenance 16
- Estates, Property 5
- Facilities Management (main) 20
- Hard Services 12
- Health & Safety 1
- Management 5
- M&E 3
- Operations 6
- Sales & Marketing 3
- Soft Services 5
- Sustainability 1
- ICT, Technical 5
- Workplace 2