Cities: The Future of Work Post-Lockdown
Photo by Victor
Tuning in to a recent webinar hosted by a London agency, which also featured panellists from the capital, we gained a London-centric view of the future of work post-lockdown.
With COVID-19 restrictions in place, huge investment and long timescales would be needed in infrastructure to realise some of the vison thinking around a truly cycling and walking-friendly city to reinvent London. As central London’s, and particularly the City’s, streets remain eerily quiet even as the suburbs emerge from lockdown there is much debate and discussion about how to make it possible for workers to return and how the space usage and infrastructure might have to adapt in the long term. Read more on the potential wider impact of a slow recovery for central London here: Neglecting central London's vital economy would be disastrous for the post-COVID UK
Until then our commuter Cities have an opportunity to provide a place for seamless working for those that can’t or won’t travel, and to address the health issues associated with working from home.
Regaining time is one of the obvious benefits from the lost commute but this only goes part of the way to compensating for the fatigue, stress and anxiety that are all too common in homeworking scenarios where work/life boundaries can be harder to set and maintain.
Infrastructure changes and repurposing of space is likely to be needed in regional towns and cities as well, albeit on a smaller scale, to accommodate stranded commuters and home workers and provide options for remote workers working near home. Councils are also facing huge challenges to support local high streets and independent businesses and they will need to adapt and move quickly to revitalise.
Much of this behaviour change, that would usually take decades, has been forced upon society rapidly and looks like it will continue into the foreseeable future.
While sometimes painful and challenging, humans tend to adapt quickly and as their needs and requirements change so will the infrastructure and services required to enable working near home.
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