Yesterday was National Work from Home Day and an estimated five million workers stayed at home to get their work done.

Work Wise UK, the organisation behind National Work from Home Day, said the benefits included less congestion on the roads, less stress for workers and increased productivity for companies.

More than three million people already work from home in the UK, an increase of 600,000 since 1997.

Kettering Council is one organisation which offers home working. Head of human resources Rachel Webb said the scheme was growing in popularity.

She said: "Employees can put a business case forward to apply for home-working. It may be they have a long journey to work or they have caring responsibilities or health issues.

"If people are working on something like the development of a policy, it gives them a bit of space and thinking time. It's a scheme which is regularly used and we are getting more confident that it works.

"The benefits for the council are that it can increase productivity if, for instance, someone has a long journey to work, and there are the green benefits.

"If someone does have caring responsibilities, it allows them to continue working. It's an employee incentive and it's a tool for us to offer."

Vanessa Barson, office manager at Shepherd Stubbs recruitment consultants in Kettering, said some companies the firm worked with offered home-working. She said: "We don't get a huge amount of people asking to work from home.

"It depends on the nature of the job. Very often a temporary position is available because there is need for someone in an office.

"Some of our clients do offer home-working as part of the benefits because it is part of the work-life balance.

"Everyone's circumstances are different and I think if more companies offered home-working as part of the role, we would get a different pool of people because it gives them flexibility."

Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, said the aim of National Work from Home Day was to allow people the opportunity to demonstrate that without the stress induced by the workplace environment or a long commute, people could be even more productive by regularly or even occasionally working from home.