Official rise in homeworking figures

Last week we reported on new figures from the Office for National Statistics showing a rise in the number of self-employed workers in the UK. The same funsters (their reports are not exactly laugh-filled) have now released more details culled from the 2011 census which show that in England and Wales, the proportion of people working mainly at or from home increased from 9.2 per cent in 2001 to 10.7 per cent in 2011. This is probably still an underestimate but it does underline the trend towards shedworking and homeworking in general.

The City of London had the sixth largest increase in homeworking (4.5%). The South East (2.2%) and the South West (2.1%) were the regions with the largest increases.

"It may be that some workers have taken advantage of the technological innovations of the last decade that can remove the need to commute to a central office," says the report, rather missing the many other reasons why people work from home. "This is likely to be more beneficial to workers living in rural locations as their potential commuting distances are likely to be longer than for their urban counterparts."

Nine urban local authorities had a reduction in the proportion of people working from home, with the London Borough of Newham having the largest proportional decrease (1.1%). However, in all 348 local authorities of England and Wales, the actual number of home workers increased between 2001 and 2011.

2.8 million people said they walked to work. We're assuming this includes shedworkers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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