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)
Rank | Location | Green space | Burglary | Download speed | Air pollution | Doctor | OFSTED (Schools) |
1 | Harrogate | 1 | 4 | 83 | 12 | 3 | 11 |
2 | Bath and North East Somerset | 11 | 6 | 88 | 23 | 8 | 32 |
3 | Mendip | 3 | 7 | 98 | 15 | 14 | 28 |
4 | Derry City and Strabane | 2 | 2 | 80 | 3 | 71 | 44 |
5 | Wigan | 45 | 16 | 38 | 27 | 26 | 12 |
6 | Cheshire West and Chester | 9 | 17 | 96 | 23 | 29 | 15 |
7 | St Albans | 23 | 11 | 40 | 94 | 16 | 1 |
8 | York | 17 | 12 | 87 | 26 | 38 | 36 |
9 | City of Edinburgh | 49 | 61 | 28 | 5 | 2 | 23 |
10 | Swansea | 17 | 31 | 48 | 13 | 72 | 43 |
11 | St. Helens | 37 | 35 | 20 | 34 | 40 | 22 |
12 | Cheltenham | 60 | 15 | 39 | 55 | 20 | 2 |
13 | Basingstoke and Deane | 5 | 13 | 78 | 30 | 83 | 16 |
14 | Stockport | 61 | 10 | 29 | 54 | 23 | 23 |
15 | Exeter | 61 | 22 | 47 | 22 | 1 | 61 |
16 | Woking | 48 | 14 | 23 | 70 | 51 | 5 |
17 | Sefton | 49 | 20 | 61 | 17 | 32 | 45 |
18 | High Peak | 4 | 3 | 103 | 29 | 10 | 99 |
19 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | 65 | 28 | 49 | 23 | 13 | 20 |
20 | Darlington | 12 | 75 | 26 | 9 | 46 | 69 |
21 | Warrington | 36 | 27 | 58 | 37 | 59 | 6 |
22 | Belfast | 78 | 1 | 22 | 19 | 53 | 96 |
23 | Redditch | 47 | 26 | 23 | 41 | 7 | 88 |
24 | Bedford | 8 | 38 | 32 | 77 | 75 | 52 |
25 | Solihull | 41 | 17 | 27 | 78 | 61 | 21 |
26 | Brighton and Hove | 53 | 47 | 12 | 66 | 54 | 31 |
27 | Swindon | 26 | 23 | 42 | 43 | 82 | 100 |
28 | Aberdeen City | 38 | 58 | 102 | 1 | 12 | 26 |
29 | Bolton | 54 | 54 | 57 | 35 | 19 | 14 |
30 | Telford and Wrekin | 20 | 34 | 53 | 31 | 94 | 48 |
31 | Plymouth | 92 | 29 | 16 | 14 | 44 | 87 |
32 | Wycombe | 14 | 8 | 92 | 83 | 56 | 37 |
33 | South Tyneside | 58 | 73 | 46 | 7 | 47 | 10 |
34 | Hartlepool | 32 | 96 | 10 | 11 | 93 | 27 |
35 | Maidstone | 6 | 41 | 77 | 69 | 69 | 35 |
36 | Sheffield | 40 | 42 | 90 | 48 | 4 | 61 |
37 | East Staffordshire | 7 | 9 | 99 | 65 | 81 | 65 |
38 | Chelmsford | 10 | 36 | 86 | 81 | 58 | 19 |
39 | Worthing | 68 | 23 | 14 | 56 | 60 | 104 |
40 | Eastbourne | 51 | 32 | 100 | 40 | 17 | 54 |
41 | Dundee City | 73 | 92 | 16 | 2 | 6 | 81 |
42 | North East Lincolnshire | 23 | 90 | 3 | 44 | 96 | 53 |
43 | Gloucester | 78 | 44 | 11 | 59 | 17 | 97 |
44 | Rochdale | 34 | 55 | 84 | 32 | 45 | 40 |
45 | Colchester | 15 | 49 | 72 | 71 | 85 | 39 |
46 | Oxford | 61 | 52 | 31 | 78 | 9 | 95 |
47 | Cardiff | 59 | 70 | 34 | 38 | 73 | 42 |
48 | Bristol, City of | 91 | 57 | 17 | 49 | 15 | 83 |
49 | Oldham | 35 | 60 | 66 | 47 | 33 | 70 |
50 | Preston | 22 | 95 | 68 | 16 | 86 | 13 |
51 | Blackburn with Darwen | 23 | 72 | 75 | 17 | 76 | 57 |
52 | Chesterfield | 56 | 21 | 95 | 51 | 5 | 101 |
53 | Burnley | 19 | 88 | 62 | 20 | 95 | 33 |
54 | Nuneaton and Bedworth | 46 | 37 | 55 | 72 | 37 | 84 |
55 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 55 | 101 | 76 | 6 | 31 | 30 |
56 | Newport | 30 | 69 | 60 | 36 | 78 | 82 |
57 | Rotherham | 27 | 46 | 85 | 57 | 43 | 86 |
58 | Kirklees | 28 | 67 | 79 | 39 | 61 | 78 |
59 | Cambridge | 71 | 85 | 13 | 78 | 48 | 17 |
60 | Peterborough | 21 | 68 | 26 | 76 | 104 | 85 |
61 | Cannock Chase | 44 | 5 | 93 | 61 | 68 | 102 |
62 | Mansfield | 42 | 78 | 42 | 61 | 22 | 93 |
63 | Calderdale | 13 | 78 | 91 | 28 | 91 | 49 |
64 | Middlesbrough | 69 | 103 | 21 | 21 | 57 | 56 |
65 | Crawley | 75 | 76 | 5 | 68 | 52 | 67 |
66 | Dudley | 97 | 19 | 36 | 73 | 35 | 94 |
67 | Milton Keynes | 29 | 30 | 94 | 95 | 100 | 23 |
68 | Walsall | 66 | 33 | 68 | 97 | 27 | 59 |
69 | Leeds | 43 | 94 | 70 | 46 | 36 | 78 |
70 | Stevenage | 85 | 56 | 2 | 85 | 49 | 73 |
71 | Bradford | 31 | 98 | 75 | 33 | 41 | 90 |
72 | Coventry | 73 | 23 | 64 | 90 | 73 | 61 |
73 | Slough | 82 | 48 | 59 | 103 | 23 | 4 |
74 | Medway | 39 | 73 | 6 | 101 | 97 | 73 |
75 | Liverpool | 95 | 83 | 56 | 45 | 11 | 41 |
76 | Watford | 88 | 61 | 20 | 100 | 61 | 3 |
77 | Glasgow City | 81 | 93 | 73 | 4 | 21 | 78 |
78 | Thurrock | 33 | 66 | 37 | 98 | 102 | 58 |
79 | Basildon | 52 | 61 | 64 | 82 | 87 | 8 |
80 | Stoke-on-Trent | 67 | 53 | 54 | 61 | 67 | 72 |
81 | Worcester | 77 | 45 | 97 | 42 | 39 | 77 |
82 | Birmingham | 90 | 59 | 46 | 96 | 28 | 60 |
83 | Sunderland | 57 | 87 | 81 | 8 | 77 | 76 |
84 | Reading | 93 | 40 | 44 | 88 | 92 | 34 |
85 | Doncaster | 16 | 82 | 89 | 52 | 84 | 103 |
86 | Lincoln | 72 | 100 | 8 | 61 | 70 | 51 |
87 | Derby | 84 | 51 | 33 | 84 | 78 | 98 |
88 | London | 78 | 43 | 104 | 104 | 49 | 7 |
89 | Wolverhampton | 104 | 49 | 43 | 75 | 61 | 55 |
90 | Norwich | 98 | 91 | 51 | 73 | 34 | 9 |
91 | Nottingham | 94 | 97 | 18 | 89 | 23 | 66 |
92 | Southend-on-Sea | 86 | 78 | 72 | 67 | 42 | 38 |
93 | Northampton | 76 | 71 | 30 | 86 | 90 | 68 |
94 | Harlow | 61 | 81 | 4 | 92 | 99 | 92 |
95 | Portsmouth | 89 | 77 | 9 | 87 | 98 | 61 |
96 | Hastings | 70 | 65 | 101 | 53 | 103 | 29 |
97 | Kingston upon Hull, City of | 102 | 102 | 1 | 58 | 101 | 46 |
98 | Southampton | 100 | 89 | 52 | 49 | 66 | 47 |
99 | Luton | 96 | 61 | 7 | 102 | 89 | 89 |
100 | Blackpool | 101 | 104 | 65 | 10 | 78 | 49 |
100 | Manchester | 99 | 99 | 83 | 60 | 30 | 17 |
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:
Location | Uswitch Remote Working Index Rank | Number of flexible workspaces | Popula-tion | Population per workspace |
Harrogate | 1 | 2 | 164,100 | 82,050 |
Bath and North East Somerset | 2 | 5 | 192,400 | 38,480 |
Mendip | 3 | 7 | 116,300 | 16,614 |
Derry City and Strabane | 4 | 14 | 151,109 | 10,794 |
Wigan | 5 | 3 | 329,800 | 109,933 |
Cheshire West and Chester | 6 | 9 | 357,700 | 39,744 |
St Albans | 7 | 12 | 148,600 | 12,383 |
York | 8 | 2 | 201,700 | 100,850 |
City of Edinburgh | 9 | 34 | 526,500 | 15,485 |
Swansea | 10 | 2 | 237,800 | 118,900 |
Bristol | 48 | 45 | 471,100 | 10,469 |
Leeds | 69 | 30 | 809,000 | 26,967 |
Liverpool | 75 | 15 | 484,500 | 32,300 |
Birmingham | 82 | 43 | 1,142,500 | 26,570 |
Manchester | 100 | 48 | 549,900 | 11,456 |
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.