People do not realise the amount of time and money they spend on getting to work

Alan Denbigh, The Telework Association

Employees in the region travelling to and from their desks are adding four months a year to their working lives, according to new research from the motoring organisation the RAC Foundation and the Telework Association.

It also shows that South East commuters are spending up to a third of their net salary paying for their journey.

"People do not realise the amount of time and money they spend on getting to work," says Alan Denbigh, executive director of the Telework Association.

"If they stopped to look at it they might think about finding a different way to work."

London's tube passengers press on

Estimates show that there are now about two million people - 7% of the workforce - who, thanks to new technology, work from home.

Those who have switched to home working praise its effects on their lifestyles.

Tina Walker is one example.

She now runs her own software company but used to have a 90-minute to two-hour commute from Stevenage to Cambridge every day.

She works at home - and walks across the landing to get to her desk.

"My youngest child is seven and the oldest is now nine-years-old and now I see a bit more of them - they used to go to a childminder," she says.

I still get up every morning into my work clothes and still put my make-up on

Sue Wise

"These days, there's someone here in the morning to take them to school and there's someone to collect them at night."

Apart from the school run, she says she has found more time for her own interests and she gets more work done too.

Sue Wise is in the same position. She works for a foster care agency in which every employee works from home.

In fact, she did commute from Essex to London every day until August 2001, when difficulties with the trains began to dominate her life.

Taking a drastic step, her employer locked her out of the office to convince her to work from home.

"I never thought I would work at home but it's another world," she says.

But she says keeping up her working standards is important.

"I still get up every morning into my work clothes and still put my make-up on.

"I do all the things I would have done apart from not getting on a train and a bus."

According to the RAC and the Teleworking Association, who are campaigning for more people to work at home, quality of life and the pay packet suffer from commuting.

The Teleworking Association estimates within 10 years, teleworking could achieve:

A 15% reduction in commuter traffic 5% reduction in business travel 10% reduction in heavy good vehicle journeys 10% reduction in car shopping

Research also suggests that employers can make savings on home-based staff.

But some people find that commuting is the only option.

William Axtell works for a large City law firm and travels from Didcot in Oxfordshire to the capital every day.

He makes sure he leaves two hours for the journey and arrives at his desk at 9.15 am - hopefully.

"I try to get the 7.59 am train from Didcot which should get in at 8.43am.

"The tube then takes 25 minutes and there's a bit of walking.

"I don't mind the train and I generally get a seat going in - not always on the way back."

Although his firm is amenable to home working, the nature of the job calls for meetings with clients and late-night brain-storming.

He also admits he might well miss the atmosphere in the office if he worked from home - "It's useful to bounce ideas off others," he says.