Isolation - what changes are likely to stick?
We’re now entering week 2 of the UK’s recommended social isolation and people are adjusting to being at home. It’s early days yet - but I think it’s going to accelerate some longer term changes in our lifestyles. The first two that struck me were working from home and shopping!
Driving / Commuting
Many people have never worked at home for an extended period - after 3-6 months of doing it (based on at least 12 weeks as cited by Borris!) many will be glad get back into the office, but they will also be used to all the time they saved not commuting. I’d predict more people will want to work from home 2-3 days a week, and companies will already be set up for it - from the work done during the stay at home period.
This will be great for the enviornment and good for people’s well-being - and fits into the long term goals to move to a zero-carbon economy!
High Street Shops
The high street has been slowly being killed by internet shopping - or more accurate some parts of it have been. I think a lot of the shops will never re-open. Shops that have moved online will simply stay there as their customers will have migrated and only shops that are ‘destinations’ will re-open (delis, browsing speciality shops, butchers, bakers etc).
This is also probably good for the environment - my bet is internet shopping is lower carbon that us all driving into town, but will be hard for towns to adapt to. Many were already struggling with lots of empty shops!