Abstract

The impacts of the rising trend in teleworking (working from home) on cities remain unclear. Recent EU Barometer data reveals an increased preference for teleworking, with employers now offering more opportunities. A hybrid working week, consisting of 2-3 days of teleworking, has become the standard in some industries. However, not all occupations have the possibility of teleworking, which presents potential challenges. The rise of teleworking has changed people's perspectives, leading many to reassess long-distance commutes and reconsider their locational choices.

The rapid increase and shift in teleworking practices have left the effects on city density and urban structures undetermined. Changes in housing demand across various locations can lead to differential impacts on house prices. Increased teleworking may contribute to greater dispersion and urban sprawl, causing cities to become less compact and raising concerns about their sustainability. Maintaining compact cities on the other hand, presents additional concerns related to viability, affordability and overall quality of life.

Countries are currently grappling with the challenge of balancing compact growth, falling household size, economically viable housing, and affordability of housing. In light of these concerns, I will present some preliminary results that analyse property price gradients, job numbers, and net population density for several UK cities. These findings intend to raise some of the potential consequences of the rapid rise in teleworking on urban environments.

Biography

Paul KILGARRIFF is a post-doc working on the FNR CORE project "SCALE-IT-UP". Paul has an economics background with a particular interest in the spatial analysis of land use, housing, commuting and the environment. He previously worked as a post-doc at Teagasc the Irish agricultural research agency. He completed his PhD in Geocomputation at the National Centre for geocomputation (NCG), Maynooth University in 2017. Paul is also an adjunct lecturer with the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Paul’s current research agenda is focusing on analyising the gradient profiles of the both the artificial land use and population density for 600 European cities utilising a scaling methodology. This research examines the change in artificial land use over time. Another element of the research involves creating a continuous definition of a city’s extent.