After a year of working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is beginning to look as if office jobs might never be quite the same again.

As the UK continues its route out of the third coronavirus lockdown, businesses are re-evaluating the importance of office space after it became clear many jobs could be done just as efficiently from home.

Some businesses have already taken the plunge and made home-working permanent - Nationwide building society has told 13,000 employees they can work 'anywhere' in the country as it plans to close a number of offices.

The decision followed an internal survey, revealing 57% wanted to work from home full-time when lockdown finally ends.

News publisher Reach, which prints the Mirror, Express and the Daily Star, has already told staff it will be moving to a hybrid model of office and home-based working, with only around a quarter of the workforce going back to being permanently office based.

Reduced commuting times and a better work-life balance has helped re-evaluate the relationship between where we work and how we work - not to mention the prospect of saving cash by not having the overheads of 'inessential' office space.

But not everyone is convinced.

Roland Stanley, founder of Dragon Coworking in Medway, has seen a drastic increase in inquiries to work in the shared office once lockdown eases.

Launched in 2017, his premises in New Road, Rochester, caters for small businesses or individual employees that want an environment away from home where they can work.

And according to the owner, many of us still want that support and sense of community that comes with the office environment.

He said: "I see a lot of value in human interaction. I think that's what people will crave and that's why people come to us.

"A lot of us can work from home - we've got desks, we've got internet connections, we've got our laptops.

"But we're here bringing people together. People miss talking to each other, having the chats, the going out for a drink after work - hopefully soon we'll be able to do that."

Workers who opt to become members at Dragon Coworking can choose from a number of options - from their own dedicated office to sharing a desk with others.

Aside from the spirit of community, Roland also said many of us will still want to be able to remove ourselves fully from a work environment once we finish for the day - something which is nigh-on impossible when working from home.

He said: "People are deciding they don't want to be there 24/7 at home.

"Although they love their home, they want a home to be for family time, somewhere to relax and to really enjoy, not for working in."

The business has seen a 30% growth in members since lockdown began last March, with some using the offices out of necessity during the lockdown.

The space has been adapted to adhere to social distancing guidelines, with perspex screens between desk spaces and hand sanitising stations throughout the building.

Roland said: "We've stayed open purely for those people who couldn't work from home. People forget - work from home sounds great but some people have a one-bedroom flat, they don't have a desk or their internet connection is terrible.

"And also it's from the perspective of people's mental health - people are saying 'my mental health deteriorated over the last 12 months purely because I haven't been out of the house and I've got out of the habit of being out of the house'.

"It's so important for people to get out and have that bit of banter, have that chat at the coffee machine, having lunch with other people and just enjoying being around other human beings."

"Some people have a one-bedroom flat, they don't have a desk or their internet connection is terrible..."

Data released earlier this year by the Royal Society for Public Health confirmed the effects of home working on many people's mental health.

The survey revealed 67% felt less connected to their colleagues and 56% found it harder to switch off - while just a third of respondents were offered mental health support by their employers.

And although the findings showed the majority of people did not want to go back to working in an office full time, 74% said they wanted to split their time between home working and the office.

With fresh desk space and the installation of all-important soundproof 'Zoom rooms' for video calls, Roland believes flexible open office space, such as his, will play a far larger part in office work life than ever before.

He said: "I think the whole thing going forward is going to be about flexibility and choice, and employers giving their employees an extra choice of what they want to do.

"So perhaps they'll work in London one or two days a week, and then work in a co-working space one or two days a week and work from home on a Friday, whatever suits their family needs.

"It's one of the things I think that pandemic's really changed. It's changed the whole thought process for employees and employers about what they need to do. And it's exciting times ahead - it's going to be better for our work and life."

Co-working spaces also give independent businesses a place to work from.

Jemma Fairclough-Haynes has run her business Orchard Employment Law out of Dragon's office for the past three years.

She worked from home until she was ready to take on her first employee, then realising the home working dynamic was no longer fit for purpose.

What she discovered when she joined the co-working space was the joy of working alongside others again.

She said: "Pre-Covid we'd have lots of get togethers, we've all become friends and it's people you can bounce ideas off. So even though you're in a small business it's like working in a large organisation."

Jemma is looking forward to the space bustling once again as restrictions continue to ease.

"People are fed up of working from home now, so we're seeing a lot more people who have offices a lot further away coming in and using the co-working area," she added. "So definitely lots of new faces which is good."

Dragon is not the only place in the area offering businesses a place to work.

Medway Council is considering renting out office space at its headquarters to provide much-needed rental income.

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