More than two thirds of employers never or occasionally accept employee requests to work from home, according to the CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey.

The quarterly study found that despite declining most requests, of the employers who offer home-working only 8% believe home-workers are less productive than their office-bound colleagues, while 30% say they are more productive.

"The slow increase in the take-up of home-working defies the evidence. While the cost of home-working has gone down, the cost of commuting has shot up," said Gerwyn Davies, policy adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

"While a substantial majority of employers report having recruitment difficulties, a substantial minority accept requests from their workers to work from home. Inflexible approaches to home-working risk restricting the competitiveness and growth of UK organisations if employer and managerial mindsets do not change."

Other key findings showed that managers and professionals are more likely to have their requests accepted than junior or middle level employees while 35% of public sector organisations frequently accept requests, compared to 21% of private employers.