The social-networking generation will rely on mobile technology, remote working and ‘pop up’ offices to get their jobs done, according to a new study backed by public sector think tanks and the Institute of Directors.

The focus of corporate IT departments will shift from supporting dozens of workers in a single office space to facilitating home-based and remote working, and ensuring that staff in temporary, shared offices can get the job done”Companies will be a bit more aggressive with how much office space they need,” said David Coplin, national technology officer at Microsoft, which contributed to the report.

“The savings in the short term will be around office space. At best 55 per cent of office space is used at any one time, leaving 45 per cent unused,” he toldComputer Weekly. “That is 45 per cent of your office costs.”

The study suggests the companies will benefit from allowing staff to use online collaboration tools and social networks to carry out their work. Knowledge-sharing and collaboration will be made easier by the knew generation of cloud-based computing services and communications networks.

“There is a message here for organisations that block tools like Twitter at the firewall,” said Coplin. “You can’t do that any more because you are restricting people’s activity. Be confident in your security and let go a bit of your control.

“We have talked for a while about the death of the desk phone. Now we are talking about the death of the desk. Its not just about working from home. There are compelling reasons for working from a variety of locations.

Flexlaw is a new sort of law firm. We work in a different way and this has as many benefits for our clients as for the lawyers who work for us.

Although statistics show that we are over the worst of the recession, repossessions may increase again if interest rates start to rise as a response to inflation. In facing such a situation it is important to obtain professional advice at the earliest opportunity. The Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Act can be used to a debtor’s advantage when faced with repossession.