'Office is dead' predictions are being proven wrong, says Handelsbanken chief economist

But speaking to The Yorkshire Post in Leeds, Mr Sproule – whose job sees him talking to hundreds of businesspeople across the country at Handelsbanken events - said companies increasingly saw the benefits of workers returning to offices as much as possible.

“I think there may be a bit more flexibility than before probably not as much as the gurus were expecting a year ago when they were all saying the office is dead,” he said. “I don’t think that is the case.”

Lloyds Banking Group has started requiring staff to spend at least two days a week in the office, while fellow banks Citi and HSBC have introduced a three-day-a-week office working policy.

The Financial Times reported that Lloyds chief executive Charlie Nunn had told staff: “We can only [be competitive] if we collaborate effectively . . . which is difficult, if a team are below strength on certain days of the week, or if some key people are only available at times when the majority are not.”

Mr Sproule said his personal preference is for office working over staff being based from home.

"We all have our own prejudices – I want people back in the office, I think office work works better,” he said.

"I can train my juniors more, I can talk to my colleagues more, I like people being in an office. I like meeting clients face-to-face and I think those meetings are much more effective than a Zoom call would be.

"Because we had never expected people working from home in the way they did, we could never collect the data about ‘Do you show up to work every day?’ because it seemed it was just the way the world worked.

"Then we saw a new thing so the data we had tends to be a lot of survey data. So the first set of data was asking people if they were more efficient working from home and the answer would be, ‘Yes boss I am’.

"Is that really a true reflection of whether people were more efficient or not? The more data that has come through, there are some questions now.”

He said the office approach was one favoured by Handelsbanken, which has around 160 branches in the UK including 14 in Yorkshire.

The ‘relationship bank’ lists businesses, property entrepreneurs and wealthy individuals among its client base.

Mr Sproule said: "Within Handelsbanken, we have about 100 per cent back in the branches.”

Andy Lowther, branch manager for one of the bank’s sites in Leeds, added: “We still do flexible working and we differ from branch to branch but we have built our business on a very personal approach to client management and generally speaking our clients prefer face-to-face.”

He added: “We offer a really personal level of service where they can come and see the person making a financial decision and they have a named person and their phone number.

"That is a real business winner for us because it is pretty unique.”