Average UK office attendance ‘settling’ at highest level since before Covid | Working from home
Workers are returning to offices across the UK in droves, pushing office occupancy to the highest level since before the Covid-19 outbreak, with one expert describing the figures as “no longer in freefall or recovery mode but stabilising”.
Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have led the push with strict return-to-office mandates, despite anger among many employees about being ordered back to the office five days a week. Companies in other industries have also increased days in the office, but many businesses, including law and accounting firms, still allow staff to work remotely two days a week.
Average office attendance in the UK has been above 40% every week since early January, reaching 44.2% in the week to 13 February, according to Remit Consulting’s ReTurn report. This was the highest level since the Covid outbreak in March 2020, which led to the first nationwide lockdown. While participation decreased to 42.2% in the week of February 20 due to the semester break, it increased to 44.1% in the following week.
Office occupancy varied among the nine cities the consultancy tracks; In the week to 27 February it was 69.2% in Bristol, 64.6% in Leeds, 63.8% in Cardiff, 53.7% in Edinburgh, 50.7% in Manchester, 42.3% in Birmingham, 41.5% in London, 39.3% in Newcastle upon Tyne and 31.6% in Glasgow.
Lorna Landells, a partner at Remit and one of the authors of the report, said: “Office attendance is no longer in free fall nor in recovery mode; it is regulated. Employees are more open to being in the office, but only for a purpose and where they feel it works. Flexibility is no longer a benefit; it is the baseline.”
He said the results of the survey show a shift in focus for residents, investors and developers. “The question is no longer whether people will return to the office, but what kind of office experience truly supports the way people work now. As expectations stabilize, the quality, functionality and clarity of workplace design will play an increasingly decisive role in driving engagement,” Landells added.
But there is great resistance to full-time office work. More than 2,000 of JPMorgan Chase’s more than 300,000 employees worldwide we signed a petition It’s been a year since the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, issued a five-day office work edict in early 2025.
The petition described the mandate as a “major step backwards” that harmed employees, customers, shareholders and the company’s reputation.
He said: “It exacerbates congestion and pollution while disproportionately excluding women, carers, senior workers and disabled people. Many of these are top performers and many can only join the workforce under hybrid working rules.”
This directly contradicts the bank’s commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, the petition added.
One staffer said: “My team is spread across two continents and three time zones. JPMC is a global company, so why wouldn’t that include my home office?”
Another said: “Hybrid works and employees love the happy environment.”
According to Remit data, the average office occupancy rate in Birmingham and Newcastle has been consistently above 40% in recent weeks, while in Leeds and Cardiff it was even higher, at over 60%. In Bristol, this rate rose to 75.4% in the last week of January.
In Glasgow the rate was approaching 30% and was surpassed in the last week after several years of declining office attendance.
It consists of a high percentage of government and other public sector employees. During Covid lockdowns, Glasgow had additional restrictions compared to other parts of Scotland and the return to the office was slower than elsewhere.
The figures compare with national office occupancy levels of 60% to 80% before the Covid outbreak, when offices were never full due to illness, holidays, external meetings or other operational issues.
An increasing number of companies are committing to building large office buildings in the long term. According to commercial real estate group CoStar, there were 14 new office leases of over 100,000 sq ft (9,290 m2) last year; this was the joint highest figure since 2017 and double that in 2024. JP Morgan and HSBC each took out around 200,000 sq ft of rent after realizing they were downsizing too much in the wake of the pandemic.
Property firm Knight Frank said: “While a return to office-first hybrid working models is the norm, users are planning for peak occupancy days and accepting some off-peak inefficiencies as the price of bringing teams together when it matters. A small number of firms are taking a more targeted approach to reducing waste, such as closing certain floors on Fridays.”
