A council that tweeted ‘the Government is no longer asking people to work from home’ is not asking its own workers to rush back anytime soon.

Fenland District Council says because Covid-19 infection rates “remain very high” it will be business as usual – and that means home working.

The council says it implemented working from home policies for many of its staff “as a matter of necessity during the pandemic”.

But it had found “remote, flexible working has proven to more successful than we had expected”.

A council spokesperson said they had found working from home achieved “positive impacts outweighing any negative ones.

“In the short-term, while Covid-19 infection rates remain very high, our staff will continue to work from home wherever possible, in order to uphold their health and wellbeing.”

The spokesperson added: “In the future, we will be assessing what lessons we can take from agile working.

“And we will look at how it could benefit the organisation and our residents through the way in which modern council services are delivered.”

The council says it remains their ambition to become a “more modern, efficient and flexible organisation” and that been a priority for some time.

“But the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rapid uptake of digital technologies has accelerated the pace of our transformation.

“The way our residents access services is changing, and the same can be said for the way our staff work too.”

For those businesses across Fenland who took the council’s advice to return they had been one further piece of advice.

“If you're back in the office this morning, open windows to let fresh air in,” Fenland Council tweeted on Monday, the day the government advice kicked in.