Major employers plan to reduce their office portfolio by up to nine million square feet, equivalent to 14 Walkie Talkie buildings, according to PwC’s Occupier Survey of 258 of the UK’s largest companies.
The new figures show half of the organisations surveyed expect to reduce the size of their real estate and, of these, a third believe they will reduce their office footprint by more than 30%.
Just 10% of those questioned agreed that the level of employees working from the office will return to pre-pandemic levels. And, despite mass vaccination around 50% of senior executives said employees will continue to work virtually two or three days a week.
PwC’s Angus Johnson said: “The figures couldn’t be more clear, the shift to hybrid working, with part of your time at home and part in the office, is pretty much embedded into the working culture of many organisations. So much so that a significant proportion of the businesses we spoke to are planning to reduce their office portfolio, which could lead to up to nine million square feet of vacant space.”
