Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson is to allow his staff to take as much annual leave as they want in a bid to boost morale, creativity and productivity.

He revealed on his blog that Virgin Group employees in the UK and US will have no limits on their time off - as long as they feel up to date on every project and their absence will not harm the business.

The billionaire entrepreneur said he would encourage all Virgin companies in which he holds a stake to adopt the policy if it proves successful.

His daughter Holly alerted him to how online streaming firm Netflix did not have an annual leave policy, meaning staff can be away from the office whenever they want for as long as they want.

Sir Richard (64) posted an extract taken from his new book entitled The Virgin Way, which read: "It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off, the assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel a 100 per cent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business - or, for that matter, their careers!"

He added: “It is always interesting to note how often the adjectives ‘smart’ and ‘simple’ describe the cleverest of innovations - well, this is surely one of the simplest and smartest initiatives I have heard of in a long time and I’m delighted to say that we have introduced this same (non) policy at our parent company in both the UK and the US, where vacation policies can be particularly draconian.

“Assuming it goes as well as expected, we will encourage all our subsidiaries to follow suit, which will be incredibly exciting to watch.”

PA