Cottage industries: Why so many Britons are working from home, and where

Cottage industries: Why so many Britons are working from home, and where

Nov 9th 2013 |From the print edition

IN THEIR medieval heyday places such as Moreton-in-Marsh, a market town in the Cotswolds, hummed with the sound of spinning wheels in household workshops. War and industrialisation killed off that home-grown industry. But now other ones are growing.Between 2001 and 2011 the proportion of people working at or from home went up throughout England and Wales, but particularly steeply in places like the Cotswolds (see map). The share of home workers has swelled even more quickly than the proportion of people taking public transport to work; meanwhile ever fewer people drive to factories and offices.

Whereas 678,000 people worked mainly at home in 2001, over 1m did so last year. The proportion of people who work in many different places but use their home as a base has risen too, to 8.4%. Apart from a dip in 2010, during the long economic slump, the rise has been inexorable.

Many farmers work at home, and the highest concentrations of home workers are still in deeply rural regions. But the biggest increases are not found in the most remote areas. They are, rather, in pretty parts of the countryside that are near to big towns and cities, such as Gloucestershire, Surrey and Worcestershire. Sleepy market towns in the Cotswolds are now home to start-ups selling organic clothes and environmentally friendly cleaning products. In Waverley, a district in Surrey, headhunters and marketing executives are setting up businesses, according to Adam Taylor-Smith, a local councillor.

Many areas with the largest increases have good transport links: parts of Waverley are only a 45-minute train journey to London. If home-based company bosses need to meet clients in the capital they can do so easily. Good connections also mean the Cotswolds are home to a large number of bored housewives, suggests Sarah-Jane Menato, who runs business courses in Gloucestershire. While their husbands push paper in London, they work on handblown glasswork or embroidery, selling their work in pop-up shops or online.

Fast internet connections make all this easier. By 2016 all of Gloucestershire should have access to a broadband connection, says Adele Clarkson of GFirst, the region’s local enterprise partnership (a body composed of local councillors and businesses). Councils in Surrey are also pushing for speedier internet access, says Mr Taylor-Smith. This makes it easier for people to set up businesses from their kitchen, or to work from home one or two days a week.

Some doubt that the trend will continue at such a pace. Grants to rural businesses have been cut back, complains Ms Menato. And the economy is at last recovering. Stronger job growth will provide people with more opportunities to go back to conventional office drudgery. Still, the rise of home working hints at a profound change, suggests Alan Felstead, an academic at Cardiff University. Businesses no longer depend on central locations to be successful, and their workers are happy to be more flexible. British towns that want to attract industry may in future need better internet access and pretty houses rather than more offices.