Is HS2 really the way forward for labour mobility and job creation?

As discussed in a previous blog post, HS2 is claimed to reduce the North South divide by creating more employment opportunities through increasing labour mobility. However, the impact of High Speed Rail, specifically, on labour mobility has not been analysed extensively (1)- as it is a relatively new infrastructure. In addition, much of the cost-benefit analysis is based on the premise that work and labour mobility will be as crucial in tomorrow’s world as they are today. Is this assumption valid? Or is this long term project proposing to create a solution to a problem which will cease to exist in a world driven and dominated by technological, rather than physical, connectivity.

In the post industrial world, work is becoming more knowledge based (2). This combined with increases in the quality and coverage of telecommunications has meant that working patterns have become more flexible both temporally and spatially (3). Employers are increasingly closing office space or reducing it and using practices such as ‘hot desking’ and providing employees with laptops or other mobile working devices as it is more cost effective (4). Furthermore, in April 2014, it came into UK law that companies must consider the flexible working requests of every employee (5). Research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) suggests that in the past ten years the number of employees who normally work from home has increased by 20% (6). These changes are all pointing towards a future where work fits around the lifestyle of individuals, rather than the other way around.

Flexible working is beneficial for both employers and employees since individual workers are more productive at different times and in different places (7). In addition, it allows workers who previously would have lost significant amounts of their day travelling to spend more time with their families, or more time working which is beneficial to employers. This being said, it has been argued that for some important or large knowledge transfers person to person interaction is crucial (8). There are some employers who have reversed decisions on working from home such as Yahoo and Hewlitt-Packard who found the quality of work suffered (9).

This granted, in general, there is a growing trend for the separation of work from the traditional workplace. This suggests there will be less of a need for individuals to travel to their workplace as frequently and as technology develops further, concepts such as Augmented Reality could further this. This means the demand for High Speed Rail Travel for the purpose of commuting is likely to decline over time.

So when job creation through labour mobility is proposed as a significant benefit of HS2, with the potential to reduce the north south divide we need to question whether there will even be a need to travel large distances for work in the future. Perhaps instead of investing roughly £50bn in high speed rail (10), the government should be investing in technology and remote working hubs which will improve workers quality of life as well as their access to work, rather than their job prospects alone.

REFERENCE:

[1] Guirao, B, Campa, J, & Casado-Sanz, N (2018), 'Labour mobility between cities and metropolitan integration: The role of high speed rail commuting in Spain', Cities, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost. Available from: http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=1342edc5-20c5-40d5-be6d-c6e68c85bff9%40pdc-v-sessmgr01&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=S0264275117312520&db=edselp [accessed 1 May 2018]

[2- 4,7,8] Hardill, I, & Green, A (2003), 'Remote working—altering the spatial contours of work and home in the new economy', New Technology, Work & Employment, 18, 3, p. 212, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost. Available at: http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=6c0be9c7-631f-465a-a602-aad250912802%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=10972589&db=bth [accessed 29 April 2018]

[5] GOV.UK. (2018). Flexible working. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working [Accessed 7 May 2018].

[6] Felstead, A. and Henseke, G. (2017), Assessing the growth of remote working and its consequences for effort, well‐being and work‐life balance. New Technology, Work and Employment, 32: 195-212. Available at: https://0-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1111/ntwe.12097 [accessed 3 May 2018)

[9] Felstead, A. and Henseke, G. (2017), Assessing the growth of remote working and its consequences for effort, well‐being and work‐life balance. New Technology, Work and Employment, 32: 195-212. Available at: http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=469473b8-86f5-46eb-b70f 43ac59a35eda%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=126406313&db=bth [Accessed 28 April 2018)

[10] Handley, L. (2017). What is HS2 and how much will it cost?. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2017/apr/28/what-is-hs2-and-how-much-will-it-cost [Accessed 2 May 2018].