Home working is holding women back because they are less likely to go into the office than men, the boss of the world’s largest building society has warned.

Nationwide chief executive Debbie Crosbie said that although the normalisation of home working since the pandemic is useful, “what we find, certainly at Nationwide, is that men are more likely to come into the office than women”.

She added that “we have to be really careful that we don’t prevent women from accessing development-watching. I benefited enormously from watching some really excellent leaders and how they navigated challenging problems”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme a year after Nationwide told staff they had to be in at least twice a week, she told the BBC that “being seen and then seeing other leaders is a really important part of development”.

Ms Crosbie added that it can also be tough to encourage women with family responsibilities to take career risks, particularly as more women are having children in their late 30s, which is typically when more senior promotions happen.