Bosses won’t be able to force workers back to office AFTER July 19 Freedom Day, new Government doc reveals

BRITS will be urged to carry on working from home after Freedom Day under leaked plans drawn up by Whitehall.

Officials have drafted a new blueprint for a new normal which will allow the country to ““live with Covid” after July 19.

It says that ministers should not actively tell people to return to the office even once most restrictions are lifted.

But it does also recommend that mandatory working from home is scrapped, according to Politico.

Civil servants suggest a “hybrid approach” where the Government puts in place measures to help those who don’t need to physically attend work.

They say offices should be kitted out with new ventilation and face masks should remain in communal areas.

But perspex screens between desks, which were put in place by many employers last year, could actually increase spread of the virus and should be binned.

The document also warns there may need to be a return to tougher social distancing measures in winter to avoid a fourth wave.

Scientists have advised the Government that self-isolation for Brits who have Covid symptoms should become the norm from now on.

That means those who have much more minor ailments like the common cold could be forced to stay at home until they get a negative test.

The recommendations are likely to spark a major row with ministers who want to see the country return to pre-Covid normal.

No 10 insisted that no decisions have yet been made on the proposals, with a review into long-term social distancing measures still ongoing.

A government spokesman said: “We have paused at Step 3 for up to four weeks due to the new Delta variant, and we will continue to assess the latest data on this variant over the coming weeks.”

It comes after a new survey revealed a third of employees are now working from home — and 85 per cent of them want to keep it that way.

A study by the Office for National Statistics showed 37 per cent of workers had spent some time out of office.

That is up from 27 per cent in the pre-Covid era of 2019.

But the analysis also suggested employers are more sceptical about the change.

Almost two-fifths expected most of their staff to return to the workplace within the next three months.

A better work-life balance was the main advantage individuals saw in homeworking, along with having fewer distractions and being able to complete work faster.

However, younger workers were less likely to feel these benefits and more likely to say they were struggling to think of new ideas, find job opportunities or collaborate with others.