Research has suggested that the majority of people working from home are older, with analysis suggesting that the over-55 age group are most likely to do so.

Conducted by the TUC, the study found that around one in five workers in this age range work from home on a regular basis. However, the trend to do so has been growing across the generations for the past decade: In 2011, around three million people worked from home but by the end of 2011 this had risen by around 25 per cent to 3.8 million.

The paper also found that different geographical areas have different flexible working trends. For example, around 16 per cent of workers in the South West regularly work from home, while just ten per cent of those in the North West do so.

Work Wise UK Chief Executive Phil Flaxton commented: “As the employment market emerges from the downward trend, the way in which people work will have changed significantly.
“Increasingly, it is becoming the norm for employees to work away from the office, with 'presenteeism' becoming a thing of the past. Managers habits and controls must change in order to maintain this momentum.”