Employers are increasingly seeing the benefits of remote and flexible working, it has been claimed.

Shirley Borrett, development director at the Telework Association, said that employers were “seeing the bigger picture” when it comes to mobile and remote working. She said businesses were becoming more aware of the advantages of homeworking, such as increased productivity.

Ms Borrett pointed out that businesses could save on property costs by introducing flexible working measures and she highlighted initiatives businesses can implement such as hot-desking and desk-sharing.

She commented, "There are other benefits, like loyalty, lower turnover of staff, and all of those sorts of things, that got missed in the whole employment rights debate. More recently, I think governments have started to recognise these other benefits."

Stefan Zachary, founder of Zachary Design, recently noted the trend for increased homeworking. He said that he believed the amount of city-centre office space standing empty was evidence of this. He said that with the internet making homeworking so easy, many people were setting up offices at home and even converting garages to create office space.

Statistics from 2008 from the CBI showed that 46 per cent of employers were offering staff the opportunity to work from home, an increase from 14 per cent in 2006 and just 11 per cent in 2004.