No, they’re not coming back for the heating.

Triumphant Daily Mail and Telegraph headlines have been boasting that the cost of heating, if you work from home, will increase your monthly bills by as much as £150-£190. They predict this will kill the ‘work from home dream’—you can picture the crocodile tears.

The 30-degree heat in London on 19 July 2022 did drive people in for the air con, so it is reasonable to ask if radiators will do the same…

But we’ve been talking to people about it. And we’re VERY doubtful.

🚘 Commuting costs

Lloyds bank data from 2019 reckoned that the average UK worker spent £66.31 a month getting to and from work. This doesn’t include coffee, lunch or socialising that people wouldn’t have if they could scarf the kids’ leftover pasta.

The numbers are MUCH higher for those who commute by train (average £544 a month pre-Covid according to confused.com).

Vs

🔥 Heating costs

Those newspaper headline numbers above are based on research from Uswitch, which estimates that people working from home will have the heating on 24 hours a day! But in households where someone is in all day, including home workers, government data suggest the figure is actually 8.5 hours. Only 2.5 hours more than houses that are empty all day.

This very good piece from Channel 4 calculates this could mean an increase in heating costs closer to £30 a month.

I suppose these numbers might drive some back in, but certainly not as conclusively as the headline writers hoped.

But…

🛑 Change of behaviour

The £30 number assumes no adaptation at all. Given that the national topic of conversation (aside from our political farce going nuclear) is how many heated oodies and blankets you’ve bought this week, it seems that many home workers are choosing to ‘heat the person and not the room’.

💄 It’s not just money!

Even if you walk to work and live in a huge freezing pile of a house, money isn’t the only consideration here. Other factors are:

• getting properly dressed

• nice hair and makeup

• time spent commuting

• dealing with that bozo in charge of the hot desking app…

…many say they will happily pay more for heating.

🏡 Cohabitation

If someone else in your house is home all day, all of the above is irrelevant.

Even if it's a pet: “I wouldn’t leave our puppy with no heating in mid-winter,” confessed a sheepish PR executive.

So bosses—if you want them back, you’ll have to tempt them with more than a radiator. Obviously you can book me to help with that 😉.

Next week

is half-term for us so we’ll be off.

See you the week after.

Christine