(Bloomberg) — The City of London could be about to become a ghost town again after firms started telling thousands of staff to work from home in response to the latest U.K. government guidance.
Deutsche Bank AG is significantly reducing the number of staff working in the office from Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The arrangements will be similar to earlier in the pandemic when most staff worked from home, with exceptions for trading teams or those with personal circumstances that require attendance in the office.
The German bank employs about 8,000 people in the U.K. and is building a new London headquarters at Moorfields that will open in 2023.
Around the corner from the German firm’s current City outpost on Great Winchester Street, NatWest Group Plc’s Bishopsgate office has already brought new guidance into effect. The British lender “has paused its phased return to the workplace and instructed colleagues to work from home, where possible,” a spokesperson said, although some staff will continue to work in offices and branches for operational, regulatory or personal reasons.
NatWest’s 50,000 employees across the country have moved to more flexible working this year, with the bank saying in June that just 13% were expected to come to the office full-time after the pandemic.
The changes come after U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tightened pandemic rules to curb the spread of the omicron variant. Starting Monday, the government guidance is to work from home if you can. Even before the rules came in, fears about the variant meant some City workers were increasingly staying away.
The reversal of return-to-work policies is mirrored at some Wall Street firms such as Jefferies Financial Group Inc., which told staff on Wednesday they should stay home and said it will require employees to get a booster for their vaccine by the end of January.
While the change was expected in London given the rise in case numbers, it’s another blow to the City’s hard-pressed businesses that saw foot traffic fall to near zero during earlier lockdowns.
“Christmas has been canceled for many City shops, restaurants, pubs and other businesses that rely on footfall from workers in nearby offices,” said Catherine McGuinness, policy chair for the City of London Corporation. “We will urge City businesses, workers and residents to follow the new rules. But we also ask the government to set out a clear road map to normality early in the new year and base all decisions on data.”
It’s not just office work that’s affected. Despite the latest government guidance allowing festive parties, Deutsche Bank is also discouraging work social gatherings, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing information that is not public.
(Adds detail on bank headcount and offices in London from first paragraph.)
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