What have we learned about long term structural change brought about by COVID-19 and working from home?

Abstract

March 2020 will forever be etched in our minds as the beginning of what has become the most concerning health pandemic faced by all generations of the living population. Almost two-and-three quarter years on, we are starting to see a number of signs for what the future might evolve into through structural change brought about by many events, and no more so than the burgeoning growth in working from home (WFH). No longer associated with negative stigma, working from home, or remote working more generally, has become almost folklore with all elements of society slowly recognising that it is to some extent here to stay, and we should start rethinking how this non-marginal change in the way we live, and work will be used to restructure the fabric of society. In this paper, we draw on the research undertaken as part of an ongoing project on WFH and its relationship to travel and work, since March 2020 to summarise the main evidence that we use to speculate on what we think are likely to be the big changes in the land transport sector that would not have been considered, at least to the same extent, pre-COVID-19.