'I want civil servants in the office' – Reeves

Chancellor's comments come as Cabinet Office minister confirms "expectation for 60% office attendance" still in place
Not working from home: Rachel Reeves. Photo: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire

Rachel Reeves has said she wants to see civil servants in the office, amid mixed reports on how the new government is managing office attendance.

Speaking to LBC Radio, the chancellor said the Treasury is a “pretty good department for getting colleagues in”.

“But it’s a real mix across government and I do want civil servants in the office. I lead by example,” she added.

“I do think there is real value of bringing people together and sharing ideas and challenging each other.”

Reeves told the radio station she supported “flexible” working, but distinguished this from work-from-home arrangements.

“If someone has got a school play of their kid, or sports day, or if they have got an elderly parent they have got to take to a doctor’s appointment, I’m all for being flexible and making sure that people can be able to balance work and family life,” she said.

“But I do think that productivity gains are more likely to happen when you have that sharing of ideas and bringing people together [in a physical office], and I lead by example on that in my department and I think that it’s reaping dividends.”

Reflecting on her arrival at No.11 in July, Reeves said she and her staff worked from around 3pm or 4pm until “worked well into the evening – not just me and my political team but civil servants”.

“And we came in on the Saturday and the Sunday,” she added. “We did that in the office, not on Zoom.”

Last week, Cabinet Office minister Georgia Gould confirmed the requirement for civil servants to spend an average of three days a week, brought in under the previous Conservative administration, remains in place.

"We have reviewed the wide range of studies available on the benefits of hybrid working, which has been used to inform the expectation for 60% office attendance for civil servants," she said, in response to a question from shadow paymaster general – and former Cabinet Office minister – John Glen.

Glen had asked what assessment the department had made of the potential impact of working from home on civil service productivity. Back in August, Gould had said ministers were "yet to review" work-from-home guidance.

Last week, The Times reported that some ministers are taking a "flexible and pragmatic" approach to the 60% rule. However, CSW understands that some departments are now asking senior civil servants work in the office for four days a week.

Reeves’s comments come a few days after business secretary Jonathan Reynolds described the last government's repeated drives to force workers back into offices as "pretty bizarre".

"Jacob Rees-Mogg made this big thing as business secretary [in] declaring war on people working from home," he told The Times. "That’s pretty bizarre given the economic position the country was in and the real business agenda that needs to be pursued."

Rees-Mogg, who was government efficiency minister under then-prime minister Boris Johnson, directed much of his frustration about work-from-home arrangements at civil servants.

In 2022, Rees-Mogg caused a stir by leaving notes on empty work desks on a visit to government buildings last week which said: “I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.”

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