The former boss of Marks & Spencer and Asda says working from home means a generation is "not doing the right job".

Stuart Rose was chief executive of M&S for six years until 2011 and then executive chairman of supermarket rival Asda until November. He claimed that working from home hurt employee productivity - a long-standing problem in the world's rich economies.

Lord Ross told BBC One's Panorama programme: "I think in the last four years our country has set back 20 years in terms of working practices, productivity and national wellbeing."

The number of people working from home in the UK more than doubled between December 2019 and March 2022, from 4.7 million to 9.9 million, as the coronavirus pandemic forced people into lockdown from March 2020.

Although most Britons do not work from home, office workers have been the worst affected so far. Since then, some changes have remained even as pandemic restrictions fade.

However, several large companies have told employees they must come into the office more often or even abandon hybrid working altogether.

U.S.-based companies such as JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have told employees they must come to work in person five days a week. Citigroup said last week it would spend £1 billion renovating its offices in London as part of a push to bring employees back.

Ross himself acknowledged his personal commitment to his working life. A brief biography of Ross on Asda's website said: "Stewart seemed to have few hobbies apart from work and had a dog named Bruce."

Working from home has become somewhat of a party political issue. Under the previous government, some Conservative ministers - notably Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business secretary under Liz Truss's short-lived leadership - expressed opposition to working from home. . Ross is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

However, the Labor government is making changes to employment laws to give workers more rights to flexibility.

Ross has been pushing for people to return to the office - although he also acknowledged that flexibility may be valuable for some. In a 2022 interview, he said: “I personally am someone who is determined to get back to work.

"I think people are more productive in the office, but we have to be flexible. We have to understand that some people have special needs and worries, concerns and health issues."

Ross told the Observer in November that having large numbers of employees working from home is "not a satisfactory way to work, especially in a fast-moving consumer goods industry."

Ross handed the baton as chairman of troubled Asda to retail industry veteran Allan Leighton in November. Leighton said it could take Asda three to five years to regain its former glory.