May 15, 2006 - SOUTH EAST LEADS THE WAY IN HOME WORKING
TUC research of regional trends of home working using previously unpublished data from the Labour Force Survey

The South East (excluding London) has the UK’s highest percentage of people working from home. More than 240,000 workers – 6.9 per cent of the working population – are based at or usually work from home. The region has experienced the third-largest growth in the UK in home working since 1997 – some 72,000, a growth of 1.7 per cent.

The South East also has the second highest number of self-employed people working from home (378,000 or 65.2 per cent), and the third highest proportion of women working from home (33.3 per cent). A quarter of those working from home are skilled trades, a fifth senior management, and a further fifth have professional occupations.

The lowest proportion of workers in the UK working at home is in Northern Ireland with just 15,000 or 2.6 per cent of the working population.

The UK average for home working is 5.1 percent of the working population, with 59.9 per cent of self-employed people working from home. The average split between the sexes is 69 per cent male to 31 per cent female.

The three-year Work Wise UK campaign, which promotes the widespread adoption of smarter working practices, such as home working but also including flexible working, mobile working and remote working, was launched at a special summit in London earlier this month. CBI Director-General Sir Digby Jones, Brendan Barber, secretary-general of the TUC, Sir Christopher Bland, chairman of BT, and Meg Munn MP, then Minister for Women and Equality, all made keynote speeches to 300 influential delegates from government, the unions and business about how to deliver a smarter working Britain.

Phil Flaxton, chief executive of the IT Forum Foundation, the not-for-profit organisation behind the campaign, said: “Work Wise UK has got off to an excellent start with extensive media coverage during Work Wise Week, which finished last Tuesday.

“National Work from Home Day and Work Wise Week, will become annual fixtures, highlighting the advantages of smarter working, and to report progress on raising the proportion of the working population able to benefit from such progressive working practices.”

Further information about Work Wise UK can be found on the website (www.workwiseuk.org).

----- Ends -----

Notes to editors:

• Work Wise UK is being organised by the IT Forum Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation.
• Further information about Work Wise UK can be found on the website www.workwiseuk.org.
• A dedicated electronic news room has been established for journalists to obtain further information, to download print-quality materials, and to register for media updates about Work Wise UK. This can be accessed either through the main website or directly at www.pressrooms.net/workwiseuk.

Supporters of the Work Wise UK campaign include the TUC, CBI, Henley Management, Scope and the British Chambers of Commerce.

For further information, please contact:

Work Wise UK: Michael Hardware, Chelgate PR, on 020 7939 7939, 07775 925 274 or meh@chelgate.com.