Commuting is only partly a solution as it limits productivity as well as general wellbeing, says Nina Skero, head of macroeconomics at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). “As distances between home and workplace increase, so does [commuters’] lack of sleep, for example. Sleep deprivation in turn is related to low productivity at work.” A CEBR study in 2015 calculated that commuting cost the UK £12bn per year in lost productivity.

 

In London the productivity problem has been exacerbated by national permitted development rules introduced in 2013 that eased the process of converting commercial land to residential use, says Swinney. With house prices high, much land zoned as commercial has now been changed to housing (changing land use the other way is much harder, he says), tightening the supply of offices at London’s centre and driving up costs.

 

 

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