The Reform UK leader says it is ‘nonsense’ that people are more productive when working from home (Image: Getty)
Nigel Farage has called for an end to working from home culture, rubbishing claims that people are more productive out of the office. The Reform UK leader told a rally in Birmingham that he believes workers are “more productive” when they are with “fellow human beings”, suggesting that solitary shifts get in the way of “hard work”.
“It is an attitudinal change that Britain needs,” Mr Farage said. “An attitudinal change to hard work, rather than work-life balance.”
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“People aren’t more productive working from home – it’s a load of nonsense,” he added.
“They’re more productive being with other fellow human beings and working as part of a team.”
Mr Farage said staff in Reform-run councils will be ordered to work from the office five days a week or risk losing their jobs
Working from home has become increasingly commonplace since the Covid-19 pandemic (Image: Getty)
The shift towards remote work has become widespread in the UK since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of people working from their homes doubling between late 2019 and early 2022.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that just 4.7 million people worked remotely in the months before the pandemic, risising to 9.9 million nearly two years later.
Data from early 2025 shows that 28% of UK workers were employed in hybrid positions, while 13% were fully remote.
The tide has begun to shift against the trend in recent years, with major firms including Amazon, Boots and JP Morgan overturning remote working policies to require all head staff to be in the office everyday.
Lord Stuart Rose, former boss of Marks and Spencer and Asda warned that working from home was creating a generation who are “not doing proper work” last year.
He told the BBC: “We have regressed in this country in terms of working practices, productivity and in terms of the country’s wellbeing, I think, by 20 years in the last four.
“We are creating a whole generation and probably a generation beyond that of people who are not used to actually doing what I call proper work. I believe that productivity is less good if you work from home.
“I believe that your personal development suffers, that you’re not going to develop as well as you might if you’ve been in the workplace as long as I have.”
Nigel Farage Wants to End Working From Home Culture for One Huge Reason
Nigel Farage has reignited Britain’s increasingly heated debate over working from home, arguing that the country needs a fundamental change in its attitude towards work.
The Reform UK leader has said he wants to see an end to what he describes as a “working from home culture”, claiming that employees are generally more productive when they are physically together with colleagues rather than working remotely.
Speaking at a Reform UK rally in Birmingham in February 2026, Farage rejected the argument that working from home automatically improves productivity. He argued instead that people work better as part of a team and suggested that Britain needs an “attitudinal change” towards hard work.
His intervention has placed an increasingly important question at the centre of the political debate: should employers encourage workers back into offices, or should businesses and employees be allowed to decide where work can be performed most effectively?
Farage’s main argument: productivity
The central reason behind Farage’s position is productivity.
His argument is straightforward. He believes that bringing people together in workplaces encourages teamwork, communication and a stronger working culture.
At the Birmingham rally, he said the idea that employees are more productive at home was “nonsense”, arguing that workers are more productive when working alongside other people.
For Farage, therefore, the issue is not simply about where someone sits while answering emails or attending meetings.
It is about what he sees as a wider cultural change in Britain following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Millions of employees who previously travelled into offices every day discovered that many tasks could be performed remotely. For some businesses, hybrid working subsequently became a permanent feature rather than an emergency measure.
Farage’s criticism is aimed at that long-term shift.
Britain has already changed dramatically
The scale of the transformation is clear from official data.
The House of Lords Home-Based Working Committee reported that 13% of working adults in Great Britain were working from home all the time during April-June 2025, while another 26% were working from home some of the time.
That means hybrid and remote working are no longer unusual arrangements for many office-based employees.
The committee described the pandemic as having accelerated an existing gradual movement towards home working and noted that Britain now has one of the highest levels of home working internationally.
That creates a major challenge for Farage’s argument.
Ending or substantially reducing home working would not simply reverse a temporary pandemic-era arrangement. It would change a working model that has become established for millions of people.
The evidence on productivity is more complicated
One of the most important aspects of the debate is that there is no simple answer to the question of whether working from home makes people more or less productive.
Farage has expressed a clear view, but the wider evidence is more complicated.
The House of Lords inquiry examined productivity alongside wellbeing, employer-worker relationships, technology and the wider economic consequences of remote and hybrid work.
Different jobs also produce very different results.
A software developer, accountant or graphic designer may be able to complete most duties remotely. A factory worker, nurse, construction worker or retail employee generally cannot.
Even among office workers, the effectiveness of remote work can depend on management, technology, the nature of the task, the employee’s circumstances and the degree of collaboration required.
That makes a universal rule difficult to establish.
The government’s position is different
The Labour government has not adopted Farage’s blanket approach.
Its response to the House of Lords Home-Based Working Committee emphasised that businesses have continued to experiment with different arrangements and argued that flexibility can benefit both employers and employees.
The government said flexible working can help people balance employment with personal responsibilities and can assist people who might otherwise face barriers to entering or remaining in employment.
It also pointed to potential benefits for businesses, including recruitment, staff retention, morale and productivity.
Importantly, the government said it was not prescriptive about one particular working arrangement. Instead, it argued that employers and employees should determine arrangements that work for both sides.
That is fundamentally different from Farage’s political message.
Why flexible working matters to families
Farage’s proposal has attracted criticism from organisations representing working families.
Working Families responded to his comments by arguing that flexible working is not merely a lifestyle preference for millions of parents and carers. The organisation said flexible arrangements can make it possible for people to remain in employment while looking after children, disabled relatives or ageing parents.
This is one of the strongest arguments against a blanket return-to-office policy.
For some workers, commuting five days a week may simply be inconvenient.
For others, it can determine whether they can work at all.
A parent who needs to manage school schedules, a carer supporting a relative, or a disabled employee who finds a daily commute difficult may benefit substantially from working remotely for at least part of the week.
The debate therefore extends beyond productivity.
It also concerns labour-market participation and whether employers can retain workers whose circumstances make traditional office routines difficult.
Farage’s wider philosophy of work
Farage’s comments also fit into a broader political argument he has made about Britain’s working culture.
At the Birmingham rally, he connected his criticism of working from home with what he described as a need for an “attitudinal change” towards hard work rather than work-life balance.
That language makes his position about more than office attendance.
It reflects a broader view that Britain needs to strengthen expectations around employment, productivity and economic contribution.
Supporters of that argument can interpret the return to the workplace as a way of rebuilding professional culture after the disruption caused by the pandemic.
Critics, however, can argue that productivity should be measured by results rather than by how many hours employees spend physically inside an office.
Those are fundamentally different approaches to the future of work.
Reform has already faced questions over its own policy
There is also an interesting complication surrounding Reform UK’s position.
In 2025, The Independent reported that Reform had advertised a regional director position offering home working with occasional travel, despite Farage having previously said that people working from home for Reform-controlled councils would not be permitted to continue doing so.
That episode illustrates how difficult it can be to apply a simple principle across every type of job.
A regional political organiser may perform many duties online, while a council employee responsible for face-to-face public services may have completely different requirements.
The question is therefore not simply whether home working is good or bad.
It is whether the arrangement is appropriate for the particular role.
The office itself is changing
There is another reason why the debate is unlikely to disappear.
Companies have invested heavily in technology that allows employees to communicate from almost anywhere.
Video meetings, cloud-based systems, instant messaging and collaborative software have reduced the importance of physical location for many types of work.
At the same time, employers have continued to value face-to-face interaction for training, teamwork, management and company culture.
That is why hybrid working has emerged as a compromise.
An employee may spend several days at home while coming into the office for meetings, training or collaborative projects.
The House of Lords Committee’s findings recognise that working arrangements have continued to evolve since the pandemic rather than simply returning to the pre-2020 model.
The economic consequences are wider than the workplace
The consequences of home working extend beyond individual employees.
Fewer commuters can affect public transport demand, traffic and city-centre businesses.
Office occupancy affects commercial property.
Workers spending more time at home can change where they spend money, potentially benefiting local businesses while reducing weekday activity in central business districts.
The government has acknowledged that remote and hybrid working has implications for transport, housing, local communities and the wider economy.
That means Farage’s proposal cannot be considered purely an employment-policy issue.
It could affect Britain’s cities and regional economies as well.
A political battle over the future of work
Farage has turned working from home into a political symbol.
For him, the issue represents productivity, workplace culture and what he sees as a need to restore a stronger emphasis on hard work.
For supporters of flexible working, it represents choice, accessibility and the ability to balance employment with family and caring responsibilities.
The government’s position currently places greater emphasis on flexibility, arguing that employers and employees should determine arrangements according to the circumstances of individual businesses and workers.
The disagreement is therefore not simply about desks and offices.
It is about what the British workplace should look like in the years ahead.
What happens next?
Farage’s call to end the working-from-home culture is unlikely to settle the productivity debate.
The evidence suggests that the impact of remote and hybrid working varies significantly between people, occupations and organisations.
Some businesses may benefit from greater flexibility. Others may consider regular office attendance essential for collaboration and management.
The government has indicated that it wants more research into the long-term effects of remote and hybrid working rather than imposing one model on every employer.
Farage, meanwhile, is making a much broader political argument: that Britain needs to change its attitude towards work and that physical workplaces can play an important role in creating that culture.
The future of work will ultimately depend on how employers, employees and policymakers balance those competing considerations.
The pandemic may have started Britain’s great experiment with working from home, but the argument over what comes next is becoming a much bigger question about productivity, flexibility and the culture of work itself.