Companies surrender offices 'to cut costs'

Companies surrender offices 'to cut costs'

12.8.2008

A survey has found that almost two-thirds of small businesses are considering giving up their premises within the next year.

Employees' use of laptops, mobile phones and the internet has allowed 50 per cent of the businesses polled by phone contractor O2 to work efficiently from home, the Times reported.

Other reasons for the decrease in office use include the cost of travelling to work amid rising fuel prices and the expense of maintaining an office, the newspaper said.

Chief executive of serviced office provider Regus Mark Dixon said: "There is a huge trend towards people working flexibly. The main enabler is technology, which has given us the ability to be able to work from anywhere we happen to be."

However, a survey carried out by Continental Research and YouGov found that 37 per cent of managers thought their employees used time at home to take longer breaks and conduct their personal affairs, gadget website pocket-lint.co.uk reported.

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