Working From Home (Home-based Working Committee Report)

Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone (Con)]

My Lords, I too warmly congratulate the noble Baroness on her report: thoughtful, practical, and admirably free from dogma. I think we are all going to ask her to review the report a couple of years’ time, because it is clear that we need more evidence.

As has been well said, the pandemic accelerated what the committee calls a previously “modest and gradual shift”. We have a new reality, with 13% of working adults in Great Britain working from home, 26% in a hybrid way. We do not want to turn back the clock. For carers, disabled people and parents, it has been life- changing and, properly managed, hybrid working can offer the best of both worlds. I can remember going to work and pretending that I had a very important meeting, when actually I was going to see my children’s primary school play. We have all been in situations where we were rigidly supposed to stay at our desks with no flexibility—we might work in the evening, we might do anything, but no, it was the nine-to-five commitment —but the world is very different now. At the same time, what matters is what works for both parties, and I worry that the pendulum may go too far. Employees owe their employer commitments and obligations, as well as the employer owing them to the employee.

Businesses have different requirements. They need people to come in at different times, and many people cannot work from home. If you look at the workers out in Belfast last night—the emergency services—they had to go to work. The noble Baroness, Lady Watkins of Tavistock, will know that people in the health service have to go to work. People talking about working at home can be a little bit precious about their world. The key is that it requires management, and within management the key person I would like to have seen more reference to in the report is the chief people officer, whose job is to make sure you get 110% value out of people, and not 90%. That is all about motivation, engagement and leadership; it is at the heart of productivity. The CPO’s role is about culture, engagement, and performance management—always incredibly difficult, but how much more difficult is it when people are working from home? Workforce planning is at the heart of deciding how you are going to organise jobs that involve working from home. I was talking to someone at a utility the other day. All the call centres are now organised with people working at home, but there is a requirement to come into work on a regular basis to meet colleagues, have training and raise issues. It can be done, but it requires a great deal more thought and analysis.

For some people and businesses, working from home is essential. The Minister used to work for Standard Chartered bank. If you have to be on the telephone to Hong Kong in the morning and to America in the evening, this is very difficult to do without flexible working. If tech businesses had to be constrained by the talent pool in their local area, that would be extraordinarily limiting. It is a context between the business, activity, individuals and the employers, and we should try to be unprejudiced, objective and, above all, evidence-based as we look for a way forward.

More must be said about young people, because the Milburn report, which we have all found harrowing and deeply alarming, stated that one in eight people is now not in education, employment or training. Without action, that could become one in six. Of all the people who need to go to work—to learn, listen, be exposed to the watercooler moment, and have bossy people such as me wandering around on management walk- abouts, seeing when they look miserable or out of order —young people should be able to go to a work environment whenever possible. That is very easily said.

I also believe that older people should go to work, because they become rather comfortable. They are better off, live further away, like their house, have their dog, and they are in their comfort zone. In fact, they are stuck in a rut and becoming fossilised. They need to go to work to learn about TikTok and the next generation.

Hybrid working needs good management, analysis and thought. It is here to stay. We do not yet have all the answers, but the noble Baroness and her committee have helped us to understand a few more of the answers rather better.