Flexspaces In 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)

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

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:

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

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.