Explaining what this change could look like, Whitehouse continues: “If I put in a flexible working request or a remote working request – you have to prove from a business perspective that I cannot do my job anywhere but in the office.

“People who perhaps wouldn’t come under this law are [for example] scientists, who would need a lab. But as a journalist, I would say I want to work two or three days from home. It’s now been proven it’s possible on a technical level. The employer now can’t say no to me because I can take my laptop and do my job from home.”

“The current legislation that’s being pushed through Whitehall at the moment is really centred on shifting the narrative from it being on the employee’s perspective – from us having to prove that we can work.

Flexible working: will it be a new law or just a future work perk?