Pubs, cafes and restaurants in city and town centres stand to lose £3bn of spending a year as office workers continue to work some of the week from home.

The typical worker will spend an extra day a week at home this year compared with their pre-pandemic habits, according to research by the Royal Economic Society.

As many as 77,000 jobs in retail and hospitality could either be lost or relocated with a permanent reduction in the amount spent on coffees and lunches in central locations.

This amounts to removing 1.5% of all retail and hospitality spending, though in areas with lots of office workers the proportion will be far higher.

The City of London will be most affected, where spending could fall by almost a third.

Jesse Matheson at the University of Sheffield, who conducted the research along with economists at the universities of Nottingham and Birmingham, said cities such as Leeds and Manchester will also be affected.

With office workers in professional jobs doing more work from home, that means fewer chances to buy a coffee while commuting or buying lunch from a cafe near the office.

“The answer is likely to be, no they do not spend as much. You might find it more convenient to make your food and coffees at home now,” Matheson said.

“However, [home workers] do not get any kind of social interaction with people, so the idea of going out to a local coffee shop is very appealing.”

Money saved on commuting could be directed to more little luxuries such as a meal at a local restaurant.

More cafes and restaurants are being launched in the suburbs to cater for this shift in demand, but Matheson said the economics of running a business away from town centres meant there was likely to be an overall drop in employment in hospitality as a result.

“In the short-run, there is really not the supply of these services in the residential neighbourhoods and it could take some time for supply to catch up. It could be because of population density in residential areas that it is never appealing for supply to catch up with the change in demand.”

Meanwhile, empty retail units could be given a new lease of life under a plan to revitalise high streets, the Daily Mail reports.

Landlords could be forced to let out retail units that have been vacant for longer than six months under the Government’s new plans.

It will allow community groups and small businesses to take over boarded-up properties that blight once thriving town centres, hopefully returning them to their former glories.

The new powers will be introduced as part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which will be announced in the Queen’s Speech next month.

One in seven shops is sitting empty according to latest figures from the British Retail Consortium. The north-east of England has the highest vacancy rate, with one in five closed.

Ministers hope this will reduce the number of boarded-up shops while creating new opportunities for local small businesses and community groups and helping increase footfall and spending in town centres.

A government source told the Mail: “The Government’s mission to level up will breathe new life into these great towns and end the scourge of boarded- up shops sucking the soul out of once-bustling high streets.”

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of industry body UK Hospitality, said: “We welcome these new proposals to rejuvenate empty properties, which can blight an area, stimulate innovation and accelerate economic growth and recovery.”