The view from the UK (source www.flexibility.co.uk):

3.7 million people or 12.8% of the workforce now work mainly from home (UK Labour Force Survey 2010)
275 of the workforce now work part time
41% of ALL businesses are home based
60% of business start up from home
3 out of every 5 new jobs created are 'atypical' in some way, i.e. not fixed hours, full time permanent jobs

The average UK worker commutes for just under an hour per day - equivalent to 4 years over a working life
The average full time employee is absent for 8 days per year rising to 10 days in the public sector
There are some 10 million office workers in the UK occupying 110 million square metres of office space....with average occupancy levels of around 45%

The average cost of commuting 1-1.5 hours into work is £10,000 (after tax) just to get to a desk. Why do we keep doing this?

Peter Drucker said recently before he died (RIP). “New ways of working with people at arm's length will increasingly become the central managerial issue of employing organisations, and not just of businesses.”

Virgin Media is simply betting more on the future (of work) than it did on the past. Some people say the ROI of social collaboration is that you get to exist in 5 years time - it could be that important to certain organisations.