Former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate has said he is against working from home and argued that young people need workplace mentors to develop their careers. 

On a trip with the Neets tsar Alan Milburn, Southgate hit out at companies’ working from home policies and linked it to the joblessness crisis facing under 25-year-olds. 

“What I’ve realised a little bit too late in my life is that one of the brilliant things about being in football was I had a coach every day of my life, but also this other support system of people – physios, kit men,” Southgate said. 

“You’ve got this support network of people that you know companies, businesses can provide. It’s one of the reasons I hate working from home.”

He was speaking on a trip with Milburn to the Netherlands ahead of the completion of a review on why many young people are out of employment, education and training. 

The ex-England boss, who has become a top campaigner exploring problems facing boys and men, said young people “need those mentors” who take care of them and help juniors through more difficult moments. 

Southgate also hit out at the tax burden on businesses, warning that employers’ national insurance contributions and other cost increases have deterred firms in sectors such as retail and hospitality from taking on new staff.

“If you speak to people that run bars or restaurants, that’s what they would say is inhibiting them from employing young people,” Southgate said.

“They will see risk in having to take on additional costs and not being certain of the outcomes, and I think again that’s where a mix of changing the mindset of how we look at these things, but also perhaps aided by some changes in policy, could really make a difference.”

Working from home linked to Neets crisis

Several business bosses including JP Morgan’ Jamie Dimon and the former Marks & Spencer chairman Lord Stuart Rose are among the chief critics of working from home. 

Working from home is not explicitly mentioned in Milburn’s interim report on Neets, which said that the cost of youth unemployment reached up to £125bn each year from direct economic potential lost, smaller tax revenue and scarring on career progression. 

However, Milburn attacked online recruitment practices as firms had opted to integrate AI into selection processes. 

Working from home has jumped in the last six years since the pandemic. Some firms, including Lloyd’s of London, allowed staff to work more hours from home due to heatwaves. 

Other bosses pushed to bring employees back to offices more regularly.

Two Oxford professors warned in 2023 that AI would replace employees working from home first. 

Sir Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has also riled against working from home practices, offering discounts for commuters on Friday. 

He said last year that the centre of London was at risk of being “hollowed out” due to the risk of fewer people coming into the office.

Milburn is scheduled to complete his report on reducing the number of Neets, which is currently estimated at just under 1m people aged between 16 and 24, after the Budget.