“We know that the digital economy was and continues to encourage new business models; and what we are seeing is that trend being accelerated,” he said. Martin also remarked that the experiences of many people in recent weeks of working remotely has called into question the need for employees to drive long distances to and from a place of employment.

“Would you want to go back to that type of lifestyle and will businesses want to have the cost of maintaining an office block when we can work remotely?” he asked the ‘Rural Accessibility for All’ webinar.

Martin also suggested that ‘work hubs’ situated in market towns could offer “all the benefits of an office environment, but without the disbenefits of travelling to an office”.

He added: “If the question being asked is ‘how do you change the way that travel will happen in the future’, I think we are missing the fundamental point. We need to look at what we need to do to help make our communities sustainable and in a way that suits people’s aspirations and lifestyles. That may not necessarily be the same as we had in February this year, which may have been about driving long distances on a regular basis”.

The ‘Rural Accessibility of All’ webinar was moderated by Stephen Joseph, a Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire, organised by Smart Transport and sponsored by Enterprise.

Also on the topic of returning to work, the Transport Secretary was asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday for his thoughts on how people may respond to public transport when lockdown restrictions are eased.

“What I don’t want is to have is a situation where people are able to go back to work and they say that only way to travel is by car, and then we effectively go backwards and get clogged up roads,” Grant Shapps said.

He was asked if that might mean controlling numbers of people getting on buses or trains during the rush hour, or encouraging businesses to stagger start times so not everyone is travelling at the same time.

“The world will probably not go back to how it was before in all manner of ways,” the Transport Secretary replied. “There may well be companies in future who say (operating remotely has) worked pretty well, with some staff working from remote locations. Why does everybody have to get up and travel during ‘the rush hour’ – why don’t we have more distance during the day, to spread the load better?

“As we think about the future, we should look at the lessons we can take away that may change the way we live our lives for the better.”

(Photograph: Scott Ramsey Photography)