Why the Prime Minister should focus on sorting out our public transport before lecturing home workers

But the one thing that many workers haven’t forgotten is that dreaded commute into work on not-fit-for-purpose public transport.

A recent survey for food delivery company Just Eat’s corporate catering business showed that commuting was the biggest gripe for staff when it came to returning to offices.

Just Eat for Business Back to Office Report revealed that 37 per cent of employees who are now starting to go back into the office said the aspect they least enjoyed about returning was the commute.

If you’re reading this in London, you’d be forgiven for thinking ‘what is he on about?’ Only last week the shiny new Elizabeth line costing £19bn was opened.

The 73-mile railway line is expected to increase London’s train capacity by 10 per cent, slashing journey times for many travellers in the capital.

In Yorkshire, we can only dream.

Take for example my former university lecturer Karl Hodge’s experience. Karl used to commute daily, before the pandemic, from Slaithwaite in Huddersfield to Leeds.

Like a lot of us, he switched to working from home as the country looked to negate the spread of Covid. Karl recently had to go back on to Leeds Beckett University’s campus.

He actually took an overnight bag with him as there were no guarantees that Transpennine Express would be able to get him home that evening.

A 25-mile commute that should be straightforward turning into an overnight stay because public transport is in a parlous state in this region.

While he doesn’t usually take an overnight bag with him, Karl told me that he always keeps a toiletry bag at work so that he can brush his teeth and shave.

It’s not just us Northerners who have to suffer though. Recently I interviewed American banker Bob Diamond. The former CEO of Barclays was visiting Leeds with Rich Ricci, CEO of Panmure Gordon, to open the investment bank’s new office in the region.

I opened our conversation with the usual pleasantries, asking how the journey was up here. I got the usual tales of train woes. My only surprise was at a heavyweight of global finance taking public transport. The rest I’d heard before.

Both Mr Diamond and Mr Ricci talked about the importance of investment in infrastructure in the region. They described it as a ‘win-win’.

It’s better for the environment, it’s better for mobility and better for business, thereby better in terms of collecting tax receipts. However, it’s not like this hasn’t been known for a while. Yet the Government has consistently fallen short on its promises – just look at the HS2 fiasco.

The Prime Minister portraying those working from home as slovenly and unproductive is just wrong.

Boris Johnson saying that home workers are easily distracted by coffee and cheese strikes me as being a bit rich, considering he is the one who was caught flouting lockdown rules, nibbling on cheese and sipping on wine.

Of course, now that we’re emerging from this Covid crisis, it is important that we consider the economic impact on our city centres as a result of shifts in working patterns.

As someone who picked up on this early on in the pandemic, I’ve spoken to a few coffee shop and restaurant owners in city centres. There are legitimate concerns over their future. Similarly, there are also concerns for the commercial property sector.

But that’s not what Mr Johnson is saying because it would involve him having to face up to his own Government’s failings.

If I was a commercial property landlord, I’d be demanding that the Government get its act together and fix our ailing public transport network.

I’m sure a lot of people would love to be back in an environment with their friends and colleagues but there’s no way they want to go back to the commuter hell that they faced pre-pandemic.

My message to the Prime Minister is simple. Stop blaming others who are doing their job and do yours by giving Yorkshire the tools it needs to thrive.