Changing work/places: Remote work and the prospect of rural and coastal revival in Great Britain

This paper investigates the geographical implications of the post-COVID surge in remote working across Great Britain, contributing to the literature a new conceptual distinction between fully remote work and ‘office-centric’ versus ‘remote-centric’ hybrid roles. Drawing on the UK Labour Force Survey 2022 and 2025, it analyses relationships between different modalities of remote work and residential patterns, internal migration and regional economic disparities. The analysis reveals distinct residential and migration profiles based on the degree of locational flexibility permitted by each form of remote work. Fully remote work is associated with inter-regional migration and a measurable ‘rural revival’. Remote-centric hybrid work (≥50% remote) shows limited expansion into rural locales. In contrast, office-centred hybrid work (<50% remote) remains geographically indistinguishable from traditional on-site employment. Furthermore, remote working has not facilitated living in coastal areas. Across all modes of remote work, we find location patterns continue to mirror traditional core-periphery wage hierarchies, consolidating rather than mitigating existing regional disparities due to the persistent link to high wage areas. Because the most prevalent remote work arrangements – hybrid models – require proximity to the office, they are unlikely to drive a meaningful redistribution of human capital and wealth. Consequently, regional rebalancing strategies should focus on the specific infrastructure required to attract fully remote populations to peripheral regions or pursue alternative forms of structural investment.