When most people think of the commuter belt around London, counties like Kent and Berkshire are normally the first to spring to mind. However, recent research suggests that the commuter belt now has a few extra notches with people travelling from places much further afield.
A recent report has suggested that we could witness a new type of commuting with huge numbers of people choosing to work in the UK but live overseas. Factors such as rapidly falling house prices, the prevalence of affordable flights to an ever-widening variety of locations within France, flexible working and of course the Internet and e-mail making it increasingly easy to work from home, are all set to combine to create a new breed of long-distance commuters.
The report, commissioned by Thomson and produced by Future Forum, predicts that by 2016 there will be 1.5 million people working in the United Kingdom while living overseas, using Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted as commuter terminals. People will avoid the daily ‘cattle-run’ in overcrowded trains (which are far more likely to be subject to delay or affected by strike action) and head off in search of a higher standard of living. This better quality of life can be found in many of France’s cities and regions – where house prices are often far more affordable than they are in the UK.
As routes are added to the Eurostar and Kings Cross increasingly becomes a hub for European commuting, and more workers are not required to be in the office every morning, the savings that can be made on the cheaper house prices, food and even clothing that France offers, far outweigh the occasional hassle of heading back to the UK from once up to as many as four times a month.
Of course this isn’t going to work for everyone in a standard nine to five job – you have to be comfortable with travelling, be very independent and have a job that allows the flexibility of working in this way. However it appears that more and more workers will, as a result of the growing globalisation of many businesses, be able to work in ‘mobile offices’ while still enjoying France’s warm climes and laid-back lifestyle.
Currencies Direct customer Pete Jones is one such ‘ex-pat’ commuter. Pete has always had the option to work from home in his job as Director of a market research company, however after a few holidays to Southern France he gradually fell in love with the climate, culture and more relaxed lifestyle the on offer and decided to move there permanently. Although advances in technology allow him to get the majority of his work done in France, he still has to commute back to the UK for a week every month to keep things ticking over. Fortunately, the region is serviced by low-cost airlines and an extensive rail network, and these cheap flights combined with the fact that, unlike the high street banks, Currencies Direct don't charge him to transfer his salary every month through its regular payments plan, allows him to enjoy his new life in the sun without being any worse off than if he were still based in the UK.
Statistics show that the average daily commute for a British worker is one hour and thirty minutes, with a large percentage suffering even longer journey times. So, if a commute is unavoidable why not make it, at worst more bearable or, at best, a pleasure in itself?
Well, a new breed of Euro-commuters like Pete is doing just that. Rather than giving up their UK wage, stepping off the career ladder or immersing themselves fully in a foreign culture, a growing number of savvy workers are looking to purchase property overseas while remaining in their current, UK-based employment and enjoying the best of both worlds.
While official figures on the actual number of Britons who commute from abroad are not forthcoming, a recent report commissioned by Thomson Holidays estimates that, by 2020, 1.5 million Brits will live abroad and commute to work in the UK with varying levels of frequency.
So it looks like the modern commuter will be warming up a whole new variety of excuses for the boss when it comes to explaining why they are late for work in the morning…
Tel: 0845 130 8148 | Email: london@currenciesdirect.com | www.currenciesdirect.com
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