Small companies across Britain are increasing the flexibility of their respective workforces and allowing employees to work from home, one expert has made clear.

Brett Marino from Small Business Computing insists that by using some of the latest communications equipment small firms are beginning to match their larger counterparts in terms of workforce flexibility.

Devices such as the BlackBerry and so-called smartphones are no longer the preserve of corporate professionals and are now common among staff at smaller businesses, Mr Marino maintains.

"The latest craze amongst small businesses are complete hosted networks, this provides organisations with remote connections to hosted servers, giving them all the functionality and flexibility of large corporates without the huge cost or continued overhead," he explained.

A report recently from ntl:Telewest found that relieving stress and saving money are the two most important benefits to working from home for British adults.