An urban planning expert says people working from home is "not the thing that's killing businesses" after a Melbourne mayoral candidate proposed forcing workers back to the office as a way to revitalise the CBD.
A Melbourne mayoral candidate — former AFL star Anthony Koutoufides — has been slammed for his audacious plan to "enliven" the city centre by mandating that workers spend at least four days a week in their offices.
Koutoufides said part of his vision was to get people back "mingling" with colleagues and patronising businesses in the city, drawing criticism from worker’s advocates who said he had no right to interfere.
Urban planning expert Timothy Welch told Breakfast that people had been blaming the "demise" of cities on technology for decades.
"The reality is, there's bigger systemic problems that have drawn people out of cities for years."
He said there were a few reasons for this including suburbanisation policies that moved people out of cities and the increased ownership of cars, as malls and businesses followed people out of the city.
Welch said the amount of people who had a work-from-home component to their job was a "really small portion" in New Zealand, sitting at less than 9%.
"So that means 90% of people still don't have a work-from-home option, so it feels like a lot more than it has been historically, but that’s not the thing that’s killing businesses.
Asked whether working from home may be stopped altogether, he said there was "no way to mandate it".
"It's a big benefit for people that have families. Being able to work from home a couple of days a week is a huge cost-saving, so I don’t think we’ll see an end to that anytime soon."
He said there needs to be more services, opportunities and things people can do to make it an "attractive place for people".
"The goal of urban planning is to make a 24-hour city. A place where people not just come to work, but also come to live, to shop, to go to school, to go to green spaces, all of those things.
"One of the things we need is more density. We see a lot of empty spaces and empty buildings, so we should fill those back up with affordable housing, things that attract better schools so that people will come back in."
Welch said there were many financial benefits to drawing people back to the city including generating tax dollars which could then be used to invest back into revitalising city projects.
"Safer places to walk nice streets that have a nice treeline that are attractive places to be, more parks and all the things that make a city a vibrant place to be rather than a place to do your job and get back out as soon as you can."
"It's a matter of people being there all day long. It doesn't help to have people only coming into the city, driving in to the city and working nine to five and then leaving."
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