As the London 2012 Olympic Games get under way employees are starting to take advantage of the option of working from home to avoid the crush on public transport systems.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, one in eight companies in the UK is encouraging people to work from home, rising to one in five companies in the public sector.

London-based staff are starting to realise the benefit of this as the Games gather pace and roads are closed and Tube trains and buses over-crowded.

In fact, estimates from the London Chamber of Commerce suggest that as many as 1.5 million of the capital city's 5 million workers will work from home at some point over the next two weeks as a result of the Olympics.

The chamber's chief executive Colin Stanbridge, told the Telegraph: "We know that 80 per cent of companies offer some form of remote working, and I think that up to a million and a half employees will take advantage of that at this special time."

MPs have expressed concern about the economic impact of the Games and are worried that GDP could be negatively affected. However, working from does not have to lower productivity rates and various studies have found that people are often more productive and work longer hours when they are not required to commute on a daily basis.