Home working is proving taxing

The pandemic accelerated a trend that had been apparent before the Covid lockdowns of people working at least part of the week from home. Flexibility was seen by many employers as a way of keeping staff content. The rapid advances in technology over the past 20 years made working from home practical for many, saving money and time on commuting in particular.

There are signs in the private sector of a move back to the office, however, with even Zoom, one of the principal facilitators of home working, calling on its staff to return for at least part of the week. Zoom has notified employees living within 50 miles of an office to show up in person for two days a week and resume face-to-face interactions. Meta has insisted employees come into the office for at least three days per week from September.

But while private companies can organise their working weeks as they see fit, when it comes to the public sector the most important consideration is not the welfare of staff but the effective delivery of services. Civil service unions assert that home working is both beneficial to their members, helps reduce the “churn” of officials and does not harm productivity. They have resisted the blandishments of ministers to return to their desks and many now have contracts that recognise their right to arm’s-length employment.

Yet the evidence is now strong that this is harming the people they are paid to serve. Figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph show that more HM Revenue & Customs staff are working remotely than at the height of lockdown. For this to be acceptable, the performance of HMRC either needs to have remained steady or to have improved, and yet the National Audit Office recently said that it had deteriorated over the past year.

HMRC denies any link between performance and working from home, yet the people who have no choice but to interact with the taxman beg to differ. Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “Taxpayers and their agents are still not receiving the support they expect, with customer service performance remaining considerably below HMRC’s own targets and historical performance levels.” 

HMRC has some of the lowest occupancy rates in Whitehall along with the Home Office and Ministry of Justice. These are key departments responsible for essential services that carry statutory powers over millions of people. Their staff need to put the public first.