Working from home: impacts on residential mobility and spatial inequality

McCollum, David, Taylor, Ian, Payne, Jonathan, Green, Anne, Wahba, Jackie and Ghazaryan, Armine (2025) Working from home: impacts on residential mobility and spatial inequality (ESRC Centre for Population Change Report Series) ESRC Centre for Population Change 157pp.

Abstract

The propensity of individuals to work from home (WFH) all or some of the time (known as remote and hybrid working respectively) has proliferated since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. The growth of WFH has been particularly pronounced amongst skilled workers. The rise of WFH, in effectively decoupling the geography of home and work, in theory presents opportunities for addressing regional inequalities. In the UK case this would involve the redistribution of human capital and economic activity from areas with ‘overheating’ property markets to other relatively affordable parts of the country, thus producing a more equitable distribution of human capital and productive economic activity. The main objective of this research is to elucidate the relationship between WFH and residential mobility amongst skilled workers and to consider its implications for spatial inequalities. The analysis draws on the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and a three-city case study approach to assess how the rise of WFH has influenced residential mobilities and the distribution of human capital in the UK. The investigation concludes that the types of places that were doing relatively well pre-pandemic have continued to do so post-pandemic in terms of their ability to attract and retain human capital. The residential mobility of skilled human capital has not been drastically changed by the rise in WFH. The potential for WFH to transform spatial inequalities is thus limited. This paper also contains critical reflections on the availability of secondary quantitative data to address these important policy topics and offers some recommendations in this respect. The findings from this report are summarised in five Policy Briefings:PB 83: Regional differentials, changing working patterns and high-skilled labour mobility: An overview PB 84: Working from home: Implications for residential mobility and spatial inequalities PB 85: Working from home: Is it changing where we live?PB 86: Working from home and regional development: Case studies from UK cities PB 87: Working from home and regional disparities: Insights for UK policy

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Contributors

Author: Jackie Wahba

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