A burgeoning breed of ‘techno-commuters’ is using fast, newly affordable broadband connections to hold down city jobs without sacrificing rural isolation.

Homeworkers, defined as “people who work mainly in their own home, or in different places using home as a base”, made up 11 per cent of the total workforce in 2005, according to the Office of National Statistics. Some 8 per cent were defined as teleworkers, using the ONS definition of homeworkers who use both a telephone and a computer.