Workers are returning en masse to offices across the UK, pushing office occupancy to the highest level since before the Covid-19 pandemic, as one expert described figures as “no longer in free fall or recovery mode, but settling down”.
Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have led the charge with strict return-to-office mandates despite many employees’ anger over the order to return to the office five days a week. Companies in other sectors have also increased office days, but many companies, including law and accounting firms, still allow staff to work remotely two days a week.
Average office attendance in the UK has been above 40% every week since the beginning of January, reaching 44.2% in the week to February 13, according to Remit Consulting’s ReTurn report. It was the highest figure since the Covid outbreak in March 2020, which led to the first nationwide lockdown. Attendance fell to 42.2% in the week to February 20 due to the half-term holidays, and rose to 44.1% the following week.
Office occupancy varied across the nine cities tracked by the consultancy, reaching 69.2% in Bristol in the week to February 27, 64.6% in Leeds, 63.8% in Cardiff, 53.7% in Edinburgh, 50.7% in Manchester, 42.3% in Birmingham, 41.5% in London, 39.3% in Newcastle upon Tyne and the 31.6% in Glasgow.
Lorna Landells, partner at Remit and co-author of the report, said: “Office attendance is no longer in free fall or recovery mode; it is settling down. Employees are more open to being in the office, but only when they feel useful and viable. Flexibility is no longer a perk; it is the foundation.”
He said the results of the study showed a change in approach for occupiers, investors and developers. “The question is no longer whether people will return to the office, but what kind of office experience truly supports the way people work now. As expectations stabilize, the quality, functionality and clarity of workplace design will play an increasingly decisive role in driving attendance,” added Landells.
However, there is considerable resistance to full-time office work. More than 2,000 of JPMorgan Chase’s more than 300,000 employees around the world have signed a petition in the year since the bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, issued a five-day office work edict in early 2025.
The petition described the mandate as a “huge leap backwards” that harmed employees, customers, shareholders and the company’s reputation.
It said: “It makes traffic and pollution worse, while disproportionately driving out women, carers, senior employees and people with disabilities. Many of them are high performers and many of them can only join the workforce under hybrid working rules.”
The petition added that this directly contradicted the bank’s commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.
One staff member said: “My team is spread across two continents and three time zones. JPMC is a global company, why not include that in my head office?”
Another said: “Hybrid works and employees love the middle ground.”
Average office occupancy in Birmingham and Newcastle had been consistently above 40% in recent weeks, while in Leeds and Cardiff it was even higher, above 60%, Remit data shows. In Bristol, it hit 75.4% in the last week of January.
The rate in Glasgow had approached 30% and surpassed it in the last week after several years of lower office attendance.
It has a high proportion of government and other public sector workers. During the Covid lockdowns, Glasgow had additional restrictions compared to other parts of Scotland, and there was a slower sustained return to the office than elsewhere.
The figures compare to national office occupancy levels of 60% to 80% before the Covid pandemic, when offices were never full due to illness, holidays, external meetings or other operational issues.
An increasing number of companies are betting on large office buildings in the long term. According to commercial real estate group CoStar, 14 new offices were leased for more than 100,000 square feet (9,290 square meters) last year, the highest since 2017 and double the number in 2024. JP Morgan and HSBC each took up about 200,000 square feet after realizing they had downsized too much in the wake of the pandemic.
Real estate company Knight Frank said: “While the norm is to re-adopt office-first hybrid working patterns, occupiers are planning for busy days and accepting some off-peak inefficiency as the price of having teams together when necessary. A small number of companies are taking a more targeted approach to reducing waste, for example by closing certain floors on Fridays.”
