Sadiq Khan fears rise in home-working could 'hollow out' London

Sir Sadiq Khan has shared his fears about the rise in Londoners working from home. Speaking at an event on Wednesday night, the mayor repeatedly outlined his concerns about the post-pandemic decline in office-working across the capital. London “cannot afford” to become a city where “the centre has been hollowed out”, he told the event, hosted by the consultancy firm Project Leaders. In a message to the capital’s business community, he urged employers to encourage their staff back into the office, though he suggested that companies also had a responsibility to find ways to make the office environment more appealing for their workers.

The rise in ‘flexible working’ since the pandemic has hit central London’s economy, and has also reduced Transport for London’s (TfL) revenue from fares they would otherwise be receiving. As of March 2024, the number of Tube journeys during morning peak hours on a Monday stood at 70 per cent of the level seen on the equivalent Monday in March 2019. On Friday mornings, the comparative rate was only 62 per cent, whereas for Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, ridership stood at 79 per cent.

In an attempt to address the collapse in ridership on Fridays in particular, the mayor last year ran a three-month trial in which peak fares were abolished at the end of each working week. But a recent report into the £24m trial found that it made “no noticeable difference” in the number of peak-time journeys on Fridays. Sir Sadiq told Wednesday’s event he was also concerned about young graduates entering their first jobs in the wake of the pandemic, who due to the lack of office-working may fail to strike up connections with their colleagues, or acquire certain skills in their jobs.

He said London’s businesses should therefore think “very carefully” before deciding to reduce their office space, as they may regret the longer-term impacts for their staff. The mayor stressed that London was not alone in having failed to return to pre-pandemic commuting levels, adding that it was proving a challenge for most other cities around the world - with the notable exception of some in the far east of Asia.

One guest at the event told Sir Sadiq he felt his company was “losing the battle” in its attempts to persuade workers back into the office, due to the high cost of rail fares - particularly for those commuting in from the Home Counties. The mayor blamed the private train operating companies for overseeing a series of above-inflationary fare increases, adding that he has tried to freeze Tube and bus fares whenever possible. He said he and his team at City Hall were lobbying the Department for Transport to consider “innovative” ways of making rail travel attractive for commuters in and around London.

In separate remarks, Sir Sadiq admitted he was still “annoyed” that the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail line would not be travelling further north than Birmingham, after the project’s ‘northern leg’ was axed by Rishi Sunak in 2023. Since taking power last year, the Labour Government has refused to commit to resurrecting the route as far as Manchester - though it has confirmed that trains will reach Euston station, rather than terminating at Old Oak Common in west London.