For a large proportion of UK workers, the idea of spending five days per week in an office has become alien. According to Office for National Statistics figures, 41% of UK workers spend at least part of their week working remotely.

Rather than sitting alone in your spare bedroom, home office or at the kitchen table, you might consider using a coworking space – shared facilities offered on more flexible and affordable rental terms than a traditional office. But what can these environments offer, other than chats around the watercooler and a better cup of coffee than you might get at home?

“Unlike flexible office spaces, at their heart, true coworking spaces are about a sense of belonging, connection and community between users of the space and increasingly beyond it, into the local area,” says Dr Felicia Fai, Co-Director of the Centre for Governance, Regulation & Industrial Strategy (CGR&IS). “They provide social networks that can build into knowledge networks and formal business linkages.”

The mix of digital nomads, local entrepreneurs and residents working remotely for their corporations can spark novel conversations unconstrained by office politics or ‘organisational thinking’. As a result, casual chats evolve into deliberate knowledge-sharing, informal learning, training and the sharing of contacts at an individual level.

Felicia, along with CGR&IS Co-Director Professor Phil Tomlinson and colleague Dr Mariachiara Barzotto, carried out over 35 hours of interviews and focus groups with owners and users of coworking spaces, as well as policymakers, in three areas across England.

They found that coworking spaces feed into the so-called ‘six capitals’ of regional development:

• social capital
• intangible capital
• human capital
• financial capital
• physical capital
• institutional capital

“Coworking can facilitate local connections and relationships to generate ideas and innovation, stimulating business growth. They can help upskill people, enabling them to undertake decent work, whilst bringing balance to professional and personal lives,” Felicia explains.

“She continues: “Financial investments in coworking spaces can revitalise under-utilised buildings and revive local high streets, and they can contribute to local leadership capacity and capability.”

However, despite offering significant benefits to regions – not to mention their positive impact on users’ mental health thanks to shorter commutes and a reduction in social isolation – coworking spaces are often overlooked in terms of policy.

In contrast, the Irish government is investing in 400 coworking spaces in rural areas and towns requiring regeneration – and offering vouchers for free access to entice remote workers into making use of the facilities.

However, coworking spaces are also very fashionable, and over-supply in the wrong places may undermine their utility as a whole if users have poor experiences. So the researchers suggest local authorities should consider a degree of regional oversight to manage networks of coworking spaces, making it more feasible for local governments to offer support on a more targeted basis.

“Coworking spaces offer many benefits to individuals, entrepreneurs, hybrid workers and companies, but their potential to support local areas and regional growth is both under-recognised and under-utilised,” Felicia concludes. “Compared to Ireland, Italy, Germany and the US, this is a significant blind spot in the British regional growth strategy and skills agenda.”