Less work more play - but not until 2020

Solar-powered cars will be the norm

Families in 2020 will go on holiday through space and leave household chores to robots, according to a report published on Saturday.

Workers will spend just 15 hours a week sitting at multi-media work stations in their homes and children will swap their schools for "cyber classrooms", say researchers at the Henley Centre.

Increased leisure time will be spent making cheap long-distance video phone calls to friends, downloading videos and going shopping via the Internet, they predict.

But an ageing population and the end of the welfare state will force everyone to take precautions to look after themselves, according to the 2020 Vision report, sponsored by Barclays Life.

With life expectancy rising into the late 80s, and the cost of residential care rising, more elderly people will move in with their children, leading to a growth in three-generation extended households.

Relax while robots hoover

Contract and part-time working will become more common, forcing individuals to take more responsibility for their future financial security, while the working week will shrink to just three short days.

More than one in four people will work from home, communicating with colleagues via the Internet.

As many as one in five children will be taught in "cyber classrooms", studying from home with online lessons or teachers using video-telephones from anywhere in the world.

The report predicts a rise in the number of fathers who will stay at home to supervise their children.

Domestic chores will be done by robots, including vacuum cleaners programmed to switch on when dust reaches a certain level.

Remote systems will enable people to turn up the heating or switch on the cooker from outside their homes.

The report predicts that wealthy people will be able to cross the globe in record time, using space shuttles to travel outside the world's atmosphere, cutting the journey time to Sydney to just two hours.

Others will use solar-powered cars or travel on superconductive magnetic levitation trains capable of travelling at 350mph.