It's often said that working from home can save employees time and money by helping them avoid their commute. But a recent case has highlighted the potential savings that employers can also make from work from home schemes.

Preston City Council has stated that it has saved £470,000 by telling its staff to work from home on a Friday.

The decision was taken earlier this year and by closing the offices on the last day of the week over the course of February and March, the council was helped on its way to avoiding the payment of a 'carbon tax' of £470,000.

Council services were reportedly unaffected by the lack of employees in the office on a Friday but the ten council buildings were able to significantly lower their energy use.

There was a minor slip up when an electronic roll of honour for Preston war veterans accidentally switched off to save energy, but this has since been fixed and the council confirmed that it was not intentional.

While working from home one day a week certainly helped Preston on its way to cutting its energy usage to under the Government threshold of 6,000 megawatts for the 2012-13 tax year, switching off hand dryers and lights is also thought to have helped, according to reports from the BBC.