Good news for hybrid workers: Britain’s return-to-office push has stalled
Key Points
- 41% of working adults in Great Britain worked from home at least part of the time in July 2026.
- Fully remote working stood at 14%, hybrid at 27% and office-only at 40%.
- Fully remote working has held between 11% and 15% since early 2023.
- Around 22.1 million Britons work from home at least some of the time.
- Home working is most common among professionals, graduates, higher earners and Londoners.
Some 41% of working adults in Great Britain worked from home at least part of the time in July, the latest Office for National Statistics figures show.
The ONS Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, covering 1 to 26 July 2026, put fully remote working at 14% and hybrid working at 27%, with 40% of working adults travelling to work only.
By comparison, late June 2026 recorded 14% fully remote, 25% hybrid and 42% travelling to work only.
Late May put fully remote at 13% and hybrid at 28%, late April at 13% and 24%, and late March at 12% and 30%.
This means that fully remote working has stayed within a band of 11% to 15% since early 2023, with hybrid working ranging between 22% and 30% across the same period.
The percentages cover working adults aged 16 and over – those who did paid work, self-employment, casual work, or unpaid and voluntary work during each reference period.
Comparison site Finder, drawing on the June 2026 data, put the number of Britons working from home at least some of the time at roughly 22.1 million, or about 39% of workers.
The House of Lords Home-based Working Committee, in its report Is working from home working?, cited ONS data for April to June 2025 showing 13% of working adults worked from home all of the time and a further 26% did so some of the time.
The committee also noted that the UK now has one of the highest rates of home working in the world.
Home working remains more common among professionals, graduates, higher earners and workers in London, and a large share of jobs cannot be done remotely at all.
Darren Tierney, Permanent Secretary at the ONS, wrote to the committee on 26 February to explain how the OPN collects hybrid working data, adding that any expansion of those questions would need a government department to sponsor it.
