Phone data has revealed that only a handful of workers are commuting into the UK’s mostly-deserted big cities. 

However, journeys to smaller towns seem to be picking up and returning to similar levels as pre-lockdown. 

The data showed that Edinburgh was the city which saw the least workers return to its streets with just 12 per cent footfall when compared to pre-lockdown levels.  

Only one in eight workers in London has returned to the office in July, compared to nearly 50 per cent in Basildon, Essex.

Research by the Centre for Cities think tank shows the majority of office workers across the country have been unwilling to return so far. 

Boris Johnson’s announced an aim for a ‘significant return to normality’ by Christmas this week but the findings of a recent survey have shown that the majority of workers in the UK don’t want to get back to the office. 

Nearly nearly two-thirds of home workers were anxious about returning to the office and a similar proportion want to continue working from home in some capacity even when the coronavirus pandemic ends. 

It comes as: 

• Just one in eight workers in London have returned to the office this month, compared to 50 per cent in Basildon
• Boris Johnson encouraged workers to ‘get back to the office’ but a survey found that two-thirds want to stay home
• Workers are anxious about returning to the office and want to continue working from home even after pandemic
• 800 of Goldman Sachs’s 6,000 London staff have returned, while fewer than 2,000 of the 12,000 at JP Morgan are back 
• Rail services revealed earlier this week that they are operating at just 16 per cent capacity
• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps this morning told BBC Breakfast there is more space on public transport and encouraged people to use it to go back to work 

Andrew Carter, of Centre for Cities, told The Times: ‘Many office workers understandably will continue to work from home even as Covid-19 restrictions lift, and whilst this may well be the right decision for them as individuals, for the national economy the sum of these decisions will have a cost.  

Dr Loke’s analysis shows that ‘all settings’ deaths (red bar) remain very high in England even as hospital deaths (blue bar) – which the Office for National Statistics says should make up two thirds of the total – have plummeted

‘City-centre shops, restaurants, pubs and cafés build their businesses around catering to weekday office workers. 

‘So people working from home means job losses in the retail, hospitality and culture sectors.’

In the City, only 800 of Goldman Sachs’s 6,000 London staff have returned, while fewer than 2,000 of the 12,000 at JP Morgan are back.  

The drop in figures pose a significant concern for city-centre businesses such as cafes, pubs and restaurants which saw the majority of their customers are local workers. 

The analysis showed that workers in the biggest cities are least likely to have returned to offices amid fears over the risk of long commutes on public transport. 

The 10 biggest cities in the UK have seen just 14 per cent of its staff return to work whereas cities such as Gloucester has seen 30 per cent of its workers come back – because they are more likely to drive to the office. 

Rail services revealed earlier this week that they are operating at just 16 per cent capacity and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps this morning told BBC Breakfast there is more space on public transport and encouraged people to use it to go back to work.  

He said: ‘We are quite close to full capacity but the usage of public transport is way down.

‘We have been very careful to ask people not to flood back too quickly and they have not, and so we are seeing many cases of quite empty, for example, trains. 

‘There’s more capacity there, you can now return. Anyone, not just key workers, can use public transport.

‘I would recommend trying to avoid the busier times of day, but as people return to work – and the Prime Minister asked employers and employees to look at doing that particularly from August 1 – the public transport is there.’

He added: ‘It’s giving people a road map, really, so we can give people some hope whilst planning for the worst as well.

‘We want to give people some sense of direction, because a lot of people are running businesses or rely on the Christmas period and need to know that if everything goes well that this is our intention.’ 

In general companies are delaying the return of its staff to the office. 

The Royal Bank of Scotland said its staff will be allowed to continue to work from home until at least September. 

A ‘Big Four’ accounting firm called EY has announced that its 17,000 staff will be allowed to return to work from September 7 but they will come back on a voluntary basis with a desk-booking system. 

Boris Johnson urged the public to ‘return to work’ in a speech on Friday but according to a survey of home workers this month, nearly two-thirds were anxious about returning to the office and a similar proportion want to continue working from home in some capacity even when the coronavirus pandemic ends.  

The streets of the City of London are still deserted a week after Boris Johnson‘s call for workers to return to their offices – with ten of the top firms in the Square Mile saying…