The fall in the cost of high-speed broadband internet, laptops and telephony systems including VoIP will only add to the ease of home working, experts have suggested.

Alongside increasing affordability comes increasingly easy access, meaning that more and more people can produce the same level of work from home as they could from the office.

Many small and medium-sized businesses previously struggled to adopt flexible working practices due to the expense of technology for home workers, but that is something which is changing fast, says Virgin Media Business executive director Andrew McGrath.

McGrath said, “The high costs associated with offering this option just a few years ago are now thing of the past.”

One in five small businesses that responded to a recent survey have found that supporting flexible working has ensured staff are more productive.

Twenty-one per cent of businesses also said that home working made it easier to sort out problems outside normal working hours.

Forty-two per cent of small and medium-sized firms were certain that home working improved the work-life balance for their staff and ensured that they were able to keep their key members of staff content.