Cheshire County Council has successfully expanded its drive to encourage and enable home-based working among its employees, according to reports.

The introduction of appropriate technology, such as a virtual private network, has allowed employees of the council to work from home and to reduce their carbon footprint in line with government targets.

Having established a communications set up that incorporates office and home-based staff, the council is now considering other ways it can extend its remote workforce, reports vnunet.

Cheshire County Council IT policy and security manager Colin Rowland told the news service: "We were getting calls for a better work-life balance and now staff can use the equipment they have at home."

Explaining the impact of the latest technology, he added: "When staff were using dial-up in conjunction with county council laptops it was slow and there was no resilience."

The Work Wise UK initiative continues to back the trend towards home-based working, citing reductions in carbon emissions as a major potential benefit.