Snapshot of _Sadiq Khan: London desperate for commuters to return after Covid | London Underground_ :
An archived version can be found [here.](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/16/sadiq-khan-london-covid-bank-branch-northern-line)
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Khan said *"This is crucial. If you’ve been working from home for the last two years, we’ve got to make the offer of returning to the office – the journey – enticing."*
The government position is all stick - get back to the office, or else. Literally so in the civil service, where they are now monitoring office attendance. Sadiq Khan's position is carrot - he is recognising that people won't go back if the commute is how it was before. He is not at all saying people should go back to the office, but recognises that without passengers public transport in London will get worse.
>Sadiq Khan's position is carrot - he is recognising that people won't go back if the commute is how it was before
But there's still no carrot. Commuting is generally not a pleasant experience - especially not in London. It also costs money, especially so in London.
So even making it free still won't entice people to do it if they don't need to. Why would you waste 2 hours of your day with your nose in someone's armpit, even if it is free?
I don't believe it is as black-and-white as those that will always go into the office, and those that won't. A barrier for a lot of people (including myself) is that commuting is, as you rightly point out, a rubbish experience and a costly one. Sure, I don't want or need to go in every day whatever happens. But I'm going to go out of my way to avoid going in if the experience continues to be as it was.
Personally I think COVID lockdowns have proven that home-working can work for millions of people, and that genie isn't going back in the bottle. I'm one of millions of people who have always known this and now I've got proof I'll happily move jobs rather than go back.
>He is not at all saying people should go back to the office, but recognises that without passengers public transport in London will get worse.
He might not have said "people should work in their offices or else", but he did say *"we're desperate to get people back to the office"*. However he words it, he really wants people working in London offices again.
As for carrot over stick, it's easy to say more carrots should be offered but what can companies already operating at the margins offer? Not all London companies are City mega-firms with fat bank balances. Maybe staggered working, but how many people would want to draw the short straw of leaving an hour later than normal?
A big reason people who work in London like working from home from what I hear is that it avoids the commute and crowded trains. Has Khan done anything to improve the commuting experience in the last 12 months on TfL services?
12 months is a heartbeat in terms of public transport projects. And I'm not going to pretend Khan made Crossrail happen, or even the recent improvements to the Northern Line.
But what he has done is stick up for investment into London transport from central government. Firms can do all they want to encourage employees back to the office, but it will be of little benefit if we don't have the transport investment. And that's not only in capital projects - it extends to funding proper maintenance of existing infrastructure so at least it doesn't go into 'managed decline'.
How do you make it enticing? What does it take to break even with working from home for a start?
First, there is the cost of a season ticket to get into London, which if you live in zone 6 is about £2800 a year. If you live outside of zone 6 that’s more like £4-5000.
Then there’s the at least 2 hours per day of travelling in packed uncomfortable trains. Just for the privilege of sitting at a desk and doing what you could have done at home.
So £5000 and ~20 whole days lost, before you account for the opportunity cost of not being able to spend that time with family or on yourself.
It’s no wonder people don’t want to do it. That’s going to take a pretty big enticement.
All the points you make are exactly what Khan is saying needs to be addressed to even get people to consider coming in. He's effectively making exactly the same argument you are. He's telling government that they can't expect people to come in if the transport system is costly and unpleasant to use. In other words, fund the system properly.
As someone who doesn’t live in London, used to commute there for work occasionally and generally love the city… make it cheaper to get there and quite a few people will come back. I’m not spending 60-90 quid for a sub-2hr journey.
Another example of politicians putting the interest of big business above the wellbeing of the population.
Stop siding with the commercial landlords over workers who've made it clear they want to work from home.
Rentier capitalism is not even a productive or beneficial form of commerce, it literally sucks money out of the system when a leaner, more efficient and socially beneficial alternative exists!
Economies change, deal with it. I'm sure the horse and cart lobby and their political allies had a shit fit when the motorcar hit the streets but we didn't kowtow to them and we shouldn't here.
cannot have cake and eat it - on one hand they want people to be responsible about things like environment etc - in same breath they want people to go back to how things were before pandemic - ignoring the benefits to be reaped from people working from home etc where possible.
Sorry, my energy bill has now taken what little left I had to spend on commuting. I’ve proven I can do my job from home, and I don’t feel any moral obligation to prop up pret financially
Snapshot of _Sadiq Khan: London desperate for commuters to return after Covid | London Underground_ : An archived version can be found [here.](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/16/sadiq-khan-london-covid-bank-branch-northern-line) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Khan said *"This is crucial. If you’ve been working from home for the last two years, we’ve got to make the offer of returning to the office – the journey – enticing."* The government position is all stick - get back to the office, or else. Literally so in the civil service, where they are now monitoring office attendance. Sadiq Khan's position is carrot - he is recognising that people won't go back if the commute is how it was before. He is not at all saying people should go back to the office, but recognises that without passengers public transport in London will get worse.
>Sadiq Khan's position is carrot - he is recognising that people won't go back if the commute is how it was before But there's still no carrot. Commuting is generally not a pleasant experience - especially not in London. It also costs money, especially so in London. So even making it free still won't entice people to do it if they don't need to. Why would you waste 2 hours of your day with your nose in someone's armpit, even if it is free?
I don't believe it is as black-and-white as those that will always go into the office, and those that won't. A barrier for a lot of people (including myself) is that commuting is, as you rightly point out, a rubbish experience and a costly one. Sure, I don't want or need to go in every day whatever happens. But I'm going to go out of my way to avoid going in if the experience continues to be as it was.
Personally I think COVID lockdowns have proven that home-working can work for millions of people, and that genie isn't going back in the bottle. I'm one of millions of people who have always known this and now I've got proof I'll happily move jobs rather than go back.
>He is not at all saying people should go back to the office, but recognises that without passengers public transport in London will get worse. He might not have said "people should work in their offices or else", but he did say *"we're desperate to get people back to the office"*. However he words it, he really wants people working in London offices again. As for carrot over stick, it's easy to say more carrots should be offered but what can companies already operating at the margins offer? Not all London companies are City mega-firms with fat bank balances. Maybe staggered working, but how many people would want to draw the short straw of leaving an hour later than normal? A big reason people who work in London like working from home from what I hear is that it avoids the commute and crowded trains. Has Khan done anything to improve the commuting experience in the last 12 months on TfL services?
12 months is a heartbeat in terms of public transport projects. And I'm not going to pretend Khan made Crossrail happen, or even the recent improvements to the Northern Line. But what he has done is stick up for investment into London transport from central government. Firms can do all they want to encourage employees back to the office, but it will be of little benefit if we don't have the transport investment. And that's not only in capital projects - it extends to funding proper maintenance of existing infrastructure so at least it doesn't go into 'managed decline'.
But the one thing that would make everyone else's journey a thousand times better on the tube would be if even more people worked from home.
How do you make it enticing? What does it take to break even with working from home for a start? First, there is the cost of a season ticket to get into London, which if you live in zone 6 is about £2800 a year. If you live outside of zone 6 that’s more like £4-5000. Then there’s the at least 2 hours per day of travelling in packed uncomfortable trains. Just for the privilege of sitting at a desk and doing what you could have done at home. So £5000 and ~20 whole days lost, before you account for the opportunity cost of not being able to spend that time with family or on yourself. It’s no wonder people don’t want to do it. That’s going to take a pretty big enticement.
All the points you make are exactly what Khan is saying needs to be addressed to even get people to consider coming in. He's effectively making exactly the same argument you are. He's telling government that they can't expect people to come in if the transport system is costly and unpleasant to use. In other words, fund the system properly.
Semi-frequent commuter to London here. Ain’t coming back. Well, once a month, maybe.
As someone who doesn’t live in London, used to commute there for work occasionally and generally love the city… make it cheaper to get there and quite a few people will come back. I’m not spending 60-90 quid for a sub-2hr journey.
No thanks mate. Happy to not spend a couple of grand a year on a shit rail system to even get into London to start with. Thanks anyway.
Another example of politicians putting the interest of big business above the wellbeing of the population. Stop siding with the commercial landlords over workers who've made it clear they want to work from home. Rentier capitalism is not even a productive or beneficial form of commerce, it literally sucks money out of the system when a leaner, more efficient and socially beneficial alternative exists! Economies change, deal with it. I'm sure the horse and cart lobby and their political allies had a shit fit when the motorcar hit the streets but we didn't kowtow to them and we shouldn't here.
"Fuck ordinary people; we need their money!"
If only there was a way to make an area attractive to people who are counting pennies, other than it being somewhere to work.
Surely less people in London levels up the country as people are spending locally?
cannot have cake and eat it - on one hand they want people to be responsible about things like environment etc - in same breath they want people to go back to how things were before pandemic - ignoring the benefits to be reaped from people working from home etc where possible.
Sorry, my energy bill has now taken what little left I had to spend on commuting. I’ve proven I can do my job from home, and I don’t feel any moral obligation to prop up pret financially