UK public finances could be at risk as part of the permanent shift to working from home, according to a member of the government’s independent financial watchdog.

“Our feeling is that it will be a little less rich in public revenue than office work,” Andy King, member of the Office for Budget Responsibility, said Wednesday July 21 at a Parliament hearing in London, according to a Bloomberg report. .

“If you think you’re spending less on commuting, cafes, and restaurants, and spending more on heating homes or buying fans in the summer, or spending more on your supermarket, all of these things reduce the amount of income from the store. government by activity book, ”he told the audience.

The UK lifted many of its latest pandemic restrictions earlier this week, after a 16-month lockdown. This absence from the office has made many employees think twice about their desire to return to the office full time – or not at all.

“It looks like there will be a lasting change in the way work is organized,” Charles Bean, another OBR member and former chief economist at the Bank of England, said in the Bloomberg report. “Survey data is currently available for the UK and US, suggesting that around 70% of people would like to work two or more days a week from home. “

According to a PYMNTS survey in March, 79% of remote workers say they don’t want to return to a physical office, placing it statistically behind seeing friends, traveling abroad and shopping in a grocery store on the list of things they can’t wait to do. start doing it again.

Almost 40 percent of all respondents have switched to working from home rather than the office, and 83 percent of these consumers plan to continue working from home at least a little as often as they do now. , even after receiving the green light to leave. in the office, according to data from PYMNTS.