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.”