Top 10 UK areas most interested in working from home, amid upcoming train strikes

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  Walsall is the top area in the UK where Brits are on the lookout for remote work, with 2,160 monthly searches per 100,000 of the population. 
• Blackburn comes in second place, with 1,000 people searching for remote work every month, per 100,000 people. 
• Norwich is third most interested in working from home.  

Coordinated industrial actions, namely train strikes, have been rife in the UK as living costs remain high and workers demand fairer pay. The ramifications of these strikes fall on workers who depend on trains to get into their place of work. With no assurances that these train strikes will stop in the future, a work-from-home role becomes more enticing to workers who wish to save time and money on commuting. 

With newly announced rail strike action coming up in the UK this Easter, there is a renewed interest in remote working. Experts at Financial-World have analysed Google keyword search volume data for interest in remote work for each major town and city in the UK. Search terms relating to remote work such as ‘work from home jobs’ and ‘remote jobs’ were summed, divided by the population of the area, and multiplied by 100,000 to give the search results per 100,000 of the population. These results were then ranked to discover the top ten. 

1. Walsall – 2,160 monthly online searches per 100k population 

The West Midlands town of Walsall is home to the greatest number of people searching for remote work in the UK, with 2,160 monthly online searches per 100,000 of the population. Dwellers of the town had an overwhelmingly high number of searches particularly for the phrase ‘work from home jobs’, exceeding every other town and city in the UK. West Midlands Railway, which serves Walsall station, is one of the 14 train companies that will be affected by the train strikes coming up in on the 16^th, 18^th and 30^th of March. 

2. Blackburn – 1,000 monthly online searches per 100k population 

Blackburn comes in second place as the UK area most interested in working from home. With the exception of Walsall, Blackburn residents search for the phrase ‘work from home jobs’ far more than all other UK towns and cities. Blackburn will also be affected by the train strikes this month as Northern Trains will be striking in March.  

3. Norwich – 929 monthly online searches per 100k population 

Norwich comes in third place with 929 monthly online searches for remote work per 100,000 of the population. East Midlands Railway, which serves Norwich station, will also be affected by the strikes this month.  

4. Birmingham – 886 online searches per 100k population 

Birmingham is home to the fourth greatest number of people searching for remote work. West Midlands Railway, which serves Birmingham will be affected by rail strike action this month. 

5. Leicester – 828 online searches per 100k population 

Leicester dwellers take fifth place for the UK city most interested in working from home, with 828 searches each month per 100,000 of the population. East Midlands Railway, which serves Leicseter, will be affected by strike action this month. 

6. Preston – 799 online searches per 100k population 

7. Salford – 789 online searches per 100k population 

8. Mansfield – 787 online searches per 100k population 

9. Reading 785 online searches per 100k population 

10. Wigan – 772 online searches per 100k population 

A spokesperson from Financial-World commented on the study: 

“There is a clear demand for remote roles in the UK. The costs of commuting and the time spent doing so is proving to be a strain on many people’s finances and a stressful situation to navigate among train strike actions and the cost-of-living crisis. This is evident by the fact that every city or town featured in the top ten of this study is due to be affected by train strikes. It will be interesting to see if more employers consider welcoming more flexible work-from-home schemes or hybrid workers to keep up with the demand and avoid losing employees in the future.” 

Below are the 14 train companies, out of 28, that will be affected by the upcoming train strikes in the UK this month: 

Avanti West Coast, 

Chiltern Railways 

Cross Country Trains 
c2c, 

East Midlands Railway, 
Great Western Railway, 
Greater Anglia, 
GTR (including Gatwick Express) 

LNER, 
Northern Trains, 
South Eastern 
South Western Railway 
Transpennine Express, 
West Midlands Trains” 

The major UK cities searching for remote work per 100k population 

Rank	Location	Average monthly searches for work-from-home related terms per 100k
1	Walsall	2,160
2	Blackburn	1,000
3	Norwich	929
4	Birmingham	886
5	Leicester	828
6	Preston	799
7	Salford	789
8	Mansfield	787
9	Reading	785
10	Wigan	772
11	Lincoln	743
12	Northampton	734
13	Manchester	722
14	Wrexham	685
15	Coventry	676
16	Wolverhampton	636
17	Nottingham	635
18	Peterborough	629
19	Hereford	619
20	Crawley	616
21	Bristol	612
22	Luton	605
23	Bath	601
24	Derby	597
25	Liverpool	590
26	Cambridge	587
27	Inverness	576
28	Worcester	569
29	London	558
30	Newcastle upon Tyne	536
31	Ipswich	526
32	Croydon	516
33	Exeter	505
34	Edinburgh	499
35	Southend-on-Sea	498
36	Leeds	496
37	Swindon	496
38	Milton Keynes	493
39	Bradford	481
40	Oxford	479
41	Colchester	478
42	Burnley	475
43	Cardiff	471
44	Glasgow	471
45	Chester	468
46	Stoke-on-Trent	465
47	Blackpool	461
48	Portsmouth	445
49	York	441
50	Sheffield	426
51	Gloucester	412
52	Aberdeen	399
53	Birkenhead	399
54	Swansea	378
55	Plymouth	369
56	Kingston upon Hull	352
57	Brighton	348
58	Chelmsford	341
59	Dundee	330
60	Southampton	324
61	Doncaster	317
62	Sunderland	317
63	St Albans	309
64	Carlisle	308
65	Belfast	306
66	Canterbury	294
67	Dudley	278
68	Derry	239
69	Winchester	219
70	Sutton	218
71	Lancaster	197
72	Wakefield	130
73	Newport	113

Another helpful article can be found at https://www.adaptavist.com/ebooks-white-papers/upskilling-and-reskilling-teams-for-hybrid-and-remote