JUST eight per cent of businesses in West Yorkshire plan to move premises due to the Covid pandemic - and the vast majority are happy with their current location.

But the new report into post pandemic plans by local businesses does show that one in five companies say staff will likely work from home for at least another year - or permanently.

The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership will meet on Wednesday, and the report into area's economy will be one of the items for discussion.

For much of the past year there have been questions about how the pandemic might impact working habits.

With employees of many businesses successfully able to work from home, some experts have questioned whether there would ever be a return to offices on the scale of pre-pandemic levels.

Such a shift to home working would have knock on effects on other businesses, such as city centre coffee shops and convenience stores that rely on office workers for their business.

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However the Economic Insight report going to the LEP shows that many businesses have either already returned to their original premises or plan to in the near future.

And the downsizing of physical work space needed by businesses, predicted by some, does not seem to be likely.

The report involved a sample of 1,579 businesses, and was carried out in February and March.

The report says: "Nearly 1 in 10 (9 per cent) of businesses said their current premises didn’t meet their needs, little changed from the 8 per cent reported immediately prior to the pandemic.

"The majority of businesses (75 per cent) do not anticipate any need for more or less physical space over the next year, but if they do it is more likely to be about more than less space (16 per cent, compared with 8 per cent).

"Just 8 per cent of businesses are planning to move premises as a response to Covid-19.

"However, this increases to 19 per cent of medium/large businesses.

"Of the 46 per cent of businesses who have enabled home working, two thirds (64 per cent) say staff are already back in the office or will be within 6 months of the survey’s date (Feb/March).

"But 1 in 5 (21 per cent) say staff will work from home for either 12 more months or permanently."

The report also reveals that 76 per cent of West Yorkshire businesses "experienced a negative financial impact" due to Covid.

Nine per cent of businesses saw a positive impact of Covid and lockdown, while 13 per cent experienced no impact.

One per cent said they had not yet crunched the numbers.