A district council has been told to end its four-day working week experiment by a levelling up minister.
Local government minister Lee Rowley has written to South Cambridgeshire District Council “to request formally that you end this experiment immediately”.
He added that the department would “shortly be issuing clear guidance for the sector on the idea of a four-day working week”, adding that it “should not be pursued”.
The Liberal Democrat-led council was the first in the UK to trial the system, and voted in May to extend the initial three-month trial to one year, ending in March 2024.
Under the scheme all of its 450 desk staff, including planning personal and building control, retain the same workload but only work four days of the week.
Council leader Bridget Smith said the scheme had not only improved morale without impacting performance, it had helped address a reliance on expensive agency staff. She added that the council’s £2m annual agency bill had been reduced by £300,000 as a result of the trial.
She said an assessment showed that “performance was maintained” and added that she was “surprised” to receive the letter and wanted to meet “with ministers to discuss this matter”.
Rowley, who was housing minister for just under a month under Liz Truss, insisted that the experiment was “unlikely to demonstrate” value for money.
To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews
