The working from home capital of Europe: British employees spend an average of 1.5 days a week logging in from their dining tables

Britain is the working from home capital of Europe, according to figures that have provoked fury among Tory MPs.

UK employees spend an average of 1.5 days a week logged in from the study, the dining table or the patio – compared to an international average of 0.9 days.

In Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, staff are absent for one day of the working week, a third less than in Britain.

The French spend 0.6 days logged on remotely, meaning a Londoner is nearly three times as likely to be toiling from the settee with tea and toast than a Parisian is to be working with a coffee and croissant on the chaise longue.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, said: ‘No wonder our productivity record, especially in the public sector, continues to be so bad.’ Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers, said: ‘It is something that is definitely going to damage the economy.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured), the former business secretary, said: ‘No wonder our productivity record, especially in the public sector, continues to be so bad’ 

‘How, for example, can you start a new company from scratch if everyone works from home? How do you train the next generation of workers? Other countries are going back to the office while we lag behind.’

Only in Canada did employees spend longer working from home than in the UK, at 1.7 days on average, according to the figures compiled by Germany’s Ifo Institute.

The United States, the world’s biggest economy, was just behind the UK on 1.4 days. Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘It’s mad and is damaging training and productivity in all our offices.

‘It has become an indulgence and companies should not tolerate this level of absence, including the civil service.’ The survey was conducted in April and May 2023, with responses from 42,400 full-time employees. There were 2,500 responses in the UK.

It showed that workers liked the money and time saved by working from home but acknowledged that going to the office offered interaction with colleagues and a clear distinction between work and private life. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said recently that working from the office should become the default.