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The Best Places To Work Remotely

The growing popularity of flexible working doesn’t just represent a change in the way we work – it’s also a direct reflection of a transformation in the way we live.

As the adoption of fully-remote and hybrid working models continues, one of the main reasons to live in an expensive city centre shrinks in importance. If you only need to be in the office one day a week, living further away is far more viable.

And with less pressure to be based in a city centre to be exposed to job opportunities – smaller towns, villages, and other remote areas become more attractive propositions.

This phenomenon, in turn, could lead to an acceleration of the work near home movement – the idea that you can work from home for the most part and use local flexible workspaces on-demand.

This requires workspace operators to continue to expand into less urban areas to meet growing demand, but we’re already seeing that happen.

Critically, as the work near home movement gathers momentum and adoption of remote work models by employers continues, the choice of where to live becomes less about local job opportunities and more about other quality of life factors.

In other words, the best places to work from home become the best places to work, full stop.

That means we might see a wholesale change in where professionals primarily choose to live, which is massively important for all office operators to pay attention to as it signals where flexible workspaces will be most needed.

The best places to work remotely

So, what makes a place a good option for working remotely? That’s largely subjective, but there are some measurable factors that are generally considered to contribute towards what making a place good to live in, including:

  • House prices
  • Green space
  • Crime rates
  • Internet download speed
  • Air pollution levels
  • Number of doctors
  • Quality of schools

Uswitch recently put together a Remote Work Index that charts 100 towns and cities across the UK, ranking their remote working credentials based on these factors.

The result of their research is a ranked table of locations in the UK that are perfect for remote workers looking for a better quality of life.

Table: Remote Working Index (Click + to expand)
RankLocationGreen spaceBurglaryDownload speedAir pollutionDoctorOFSTED (Schools)
1Harrogate148312311
2Bath and North East Somerset1168823832
3Mendip3798151428
4Derry City and Strabane228037144
5Wigan451638272612
6Cheshire West and Chester91796232915
7St Albans23114094161
8York171287263836
9City of Edinburgh4961285223
10Swansea173148137243
11St. Helens373520344022
12Cheltenham60153955202
13Basingstoke and Deane51378308316
14Stockport611029542323
15Exeter61224722161
16Woking48142370515
17Sefton492061173245
18High Peak43103291099
19Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole652849231320
20Darlington12752694669
21Warrington36275837596
22Belfast78122195396
23Redditch47262341788
24Bedford83832777552
25Solihull411727786121
26Brighton and Hove534712665431
27Swindon2623424382100
28Aberdeen City385810211226
29Bolton545457351914
30Telford and Wrekin203453319448
31Plymouth922916144487
32Wycombe14892835637
33South Tyneside58734674710
34Hartlepool329610119327
35Maidstone64177696935
36Sheffield40429048461
37East Staffordshire7999658165
38Chelmsford103686815819
39Worthing6823145660104
40Eastbourne5132100401754
41Dundee City7392162681
42North East Lincolnshire23903449653
43Gloucester784411591797
44Rochdale345584324540
45Colchester154972718539
46Oxford61523178995
47Cardiff597034387342
48Bristol, City of915717491583
49Oldham356066473370
50Preston229568168613
51Blackburn with Darwen237275177657
52Chesterfield562195515101
53Burnley198862209533
54Nuneaton and Bedworth463755723784
55Newcastle upon Tyne551017663130
56Newport306960367882
57Rotherham274685574386
58Kirklees286779396178
59Cambridge718513784817
60Peterborough2168267610485
61Cannock Chase445936168102
62Mansfield427842612293
63Calderdale137891289149
64Middlesbrough6910321215756
65Crawley75765685267
66Dudley971936733594
67Milton Keynes2930949510023
68Walsall663368972759
69Leeds439470463678
70Stevenage85562854973
71Bradford319875334190
72Coventry732364907361
73Slough824859103234
74Medway397361019773
75Liverpool958356451141
76Watford886120100613
77Glasgow City81937342178
78Thurrock3366379810258
79Basildon52616482878
80Stoke-on-Trent675354616772
81Worcester774597423977
82Birmingham905946962860
83Sunderland57878187776
84Reading934044889234
85Doncaster1682895284103
86Lincoln721008617051
87Derby845133847898
88London7843104104497
89Wolverhampton1044943756155
90Norwich98915173349
91Nottingham949718892366
92Southend-on-Sea867872674238
93Northampton767130869068
94Harlow61814929992
95Portsmouth89779879861
96Hastings70651015310329
97Kingston upon Hull, City of10210215810146
98Southampton1008952496647
99Luton966171028989
100Blackpool10110465107849
100Manchester999983603017
Alternatively, view table HERE

The results put traditionally under-appreciated areas like Harrogate, Bath, Derry, Wigan, and Cheshire in the top 10, while major cities like Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, London, and Manchester all sit in the lower half of the table.

These results reinforce the idea that less urban areas will become increasingly desirable as the necessity to be in easy commuting distance to a city-centre office diminishes, but a full transition to this way of working won’t be complete without the emergence of true 15-minute city infrastructure.

Flexible workspaces in remote work hubs

And a big part of the infrastructure that needs to exist for the high-ranking, less urban areas in Uswitch’s Remote Working Index to be truly viable as live-work destinations is a more fully-developed flexible workspace market.

While home working is a popular option and makes up a significant portion of the typical hybrid working arrangement, it’s still important that people have access to high quality workspaces, meeting rooms, and other office amenities

But this access shouldn’t be homogenous. Ideally, it needs to consist of a range of choices – not just one flexible workspace in a town but a number of competing operators with unique offerings.

This doesn’t just offer choice to customers, but also creates a competitive market environment that spurs the operators on to develop their offering and push the boundaries of what a flexible workspace can be.

At present, though, these potential remote work hubs – less urban areas that have a high occurrence of quality-of-life factors – feature a lower density of flexible workspaces than the cities and more urban areas that we’re used to.

This is how the top 10 locations in Uswitch’s Remote Working Index currently compare with major metropolitan areas in terms of flexible workspace density:

LocationUswitch Remote Working Index RankNumber of flexible workspacesPopula-tionPopulation per workspace
Harrogate12164,10082,050
Bath and North East Somerset25192,40038,480
Mendip37116,30016,614
Derry City and Strabane414151,10910,794
Wigan53329,800109,933
Cheshire West and Chester69357,70039,744
St Albans712148,60012,383
York82201,700100,850
City of Edinburgh934526,50015,485
Swansea102237,800118,900
Bristol4845471,10010,469
Leeds6930809,00026,967
Liverpool7515484,50032,300
Birmingham82431,142,50026,570
Manchester10048549,90011,456
Data sourced from ONS (2023) and Valve (June 2023)

In summary, the average population per workspace for Uswitch’s top 10 remote working locations is 54,523. The average for typical urban centres – represented here by Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Bristol – is much lower at 23,552.

In other words, there’s a clear imbalance between city centres and smaller localities in terms of population per flexible workspace. Smaller regions, perfectly set up to facilitate the remote work lifestyle in all other ways, lack sufficient workspace options.

This disparity is an opportunity for operators. Those that choose to get ahead of the trend and create inspiring coworking or flexible workspaces in currently neglected areas, are set to capture growing demand.

If you want to be part of this movement, we’re here to help. Contact Spaces to Places to get more information, or book yourself in for a free chat about how we can help you to create flexspaces that meet the new demands of the modern workforce.