Minister asks South Cambridgeshire council to end four-day week trial

The local government minister has formally requested a council ends its trial of a four-day week "immediately" over concerns about "value for money".

South Cambridgeshire District Council's trial was due to run until 2024, but in a letter, Lee Rowley said such an approach could breach its legal duties.

The Liberal Democrat-led council is the first in the UK to trial the system.

Defending the scheme, leader Bridget Smith said it had helped address a reliance on expensive agency staff.

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".

The authority started the pilot in January for the 450 desk-based staff at its office in Cambourne.

It was recently extended until next March.

Mr Rowley wrote to Ms Smith with a formal request for the council to "end your experiment immediately".

He said he had concerns about the impact of the trial on the needs of local taxpayers at a time when the council should be "cutting backlogs, answering queries and improving efficiency".

"I strongly believe in the ability of councils to innovate and find new ways to discharge their responsibilities," he said.

"Removing up to 20% of the capacity to do those activities is not something which should be acceptable for a council seeking to demonstrate value for money for its taxpayers and residents."

He said while some private sector organisations "may choose to experiment with their own capital and capacity regarding 'four-day working weeks', local government should not do the same".

He added that such an approach could breach the council's legal duties under the Local Government Act and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities would "shortly be issuing clear guidance".

In a statement, the council leader said she was "surprised to receive Mr Rowley's letter and we have written to him to request a meeting with ministers to discuss this matter".

"This is a trial, but we have already seen strong independently assessed evidence which showed that performance was maintained, and in some cases improved, in the first three months," she said.

"At the start of our trial, we were carrying a £2m annual agency bill.

"During the first three months of the trial, we filled four permanent posts that had previously been impossible to fill [and] this has reduced our annual bill by £300,000."

She added that as time had gone on, it had become "increasingly clear that recruitment has been positively affected, both in terms of the quality and number of applicants, and the consequent success in filling vacant posts".

Joe Ryle, director of the 4-Day Week campaign group, also criticised Mr Rowley's request.

He said the move "flies in the face of all the evidence, which shows the four-day week has been a huge success at the council".

"The four-day week with no loss of pay is already being rolled out across the private sector, so it's only fair the public sector are included too," he added.

"There is no good reason to end this trial, which is already bringing many benefits to council workers, local residents and saving the council money."