Bringing Back Community Living

New trends in employment and lifestyle show that working from home, be it within homes or in bespoke garden offices, has become ever more popular. Seemingly never more so than in rural England. A report by Tim Dwelly, Kath Maguire and Frances Druscatt called Under the Radar- tracking and supporting rural home-based businesses highlights the following facts:

• Home based working in the UK has risen by almost 3.3 million in spring 2004, according to Labour market Trends.
• 766,000 people work from home in the 145 English rural districts (the focus of the report)
• This 11.6% of the rural workforce working from home compares to 8% of the urban workforce.

Facts that maybe don’t come as such a big surprise when you consider what working from home in a garden office could offer. The internet and advanced technology mean that most jobs can be done from more or less anywhere. What better place than at home in a bespoke garden office building. With more people working from home there has been more of a demand for home offices or garden offices meaning that there has become more choice. No longer do we need to run cables from the house to a “make-do” shed at the bottom of our garden never daring to invite any one in. There are now some stunning examples of garden office buildings, from simple log cabins to the more executive bespoke garden offices that are double glazed, insulated and so secure they are literally safe as houses. With such bespoke garden offices being able to house several desk spaces within a small area they are simply a pleasure to work in and can provide space for meetings and or training. Rural living has always had the down side of the commute into cities and larger towns to get the higher paid jobs. Having made that choice not to live in highly populated industrial areas it would make sense, given the opportunity, not to commute and so work from home.  Kelly Green, who runs a small business from her home in Norfolk, told us “I used to live in the city in a flat above an office I rented. A friend told me that she had a garden office so I had a look. I was so stunned by the executive look and feel of her garden office I moved out of the city and to the countryside. I had my garden office installed in one day with business broadband and independent business telephone lines, it was so simple, and now I really can work easily from home in my own garden office and life couldn’t be better.”

• 56% of self employed people are home based.
• Nationally, 39% of small businesses are home based. In rural areas its 55%.

With savings on building and office rental not to mention the cost of commuting to and from the office and parking it’s easy to see why being home based can be such a pull for those starting out in a new venture. However it’s not just those starting up a new business that are working from home but established long running businesses too. The space a rural area can provide compared with that within a city must be considered a factor along with the fact that farmers have had to diversify finding the “open market” and imports too much to compete with. More likely though is that we simply enjoy rural life and village communities.

With more people staying at home working in or alongside their home in garden offices it is sure to lead to lower crime rates. Cars still in garages or outside of homes and evidence that some one is at home putting off potential thieves. The knock on effect being more people wanting to move to rural areas. If the rural communities increase then so too will the demand for more facilities for example internet access and conference facilities both of which could potentially revive old parish or community buildings. A larger community will mean that more schools will reach their target intakes and that council tax will be poured back into such schools. With more people at home for more time they will be less likely to get out the car and drive to the nearest town and will therefore frequent the local shops, pubs, cafes. By spending more time in and around the area of their rural homes people are more likely to get to know “the locals” within the area. So in turn the home workers within the community will be reinforcing the community and making it a stronger and safer place to live.

• 60% of rural home workers are men 40% women.
• Most people working from home in 1901 UK Census were women.

Facts that show how times have indeed changed. Men are now more than ever showing an interest in home life and family and we are all getting a better balance with in our lives. Mr A, a home based executive told us “when the company I worked for asked me if I wanted to work one day a week from home I wasn’t sure how it would work, I thought it was only stay at home mums who worked from home. I couldn’t believe how much more relaxed I felt and soon I was working three days a week from home. I now own my own business and my wife and I both work from home in our garden office. It’s a bespoke building in our garden that is very secure and comfortable and best of all we didn’t need planning permission. We have since had our house valued and the addition of the garden office really had a positive effect. We couldn’t be happier.”

• In around 50% of cases home based business are started up by incomers to rural areas.

The authors of the report felt that this fact should be encouraged and that the government needs to do more to encourage and support this. So that what has started as a trend will mean that our precious rural communities can and should now be sustained building a better future for us all.