DLUHC issues formal warning to council over four-day week

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has issued a formal notice to South Cambridgeshire District Council after concerns were raised over its trial of a four-day working week.

A Best Value Notice has been issued, setting out "government concerns around the council and whether the trial offers value for money, including the removal of up to a fifth of the authority’s capacity".

The notice evidence on the trial to consider whether the council is meeting its Best Value Duty, including on: staffing; costs; service delivery; resident feedback; overall performance since the start of the trial; should a four-day working week continue.

Local Government Minister Lee Rowley has requested the council to end the trial. He said: "“We are extremely concerned South Cambridgeshire District Council continues to experiment with taxpayers’ money by offering full time pay for part time work.

“We have been clear that the Government does not support the so-called four-day working week and, despite issuing clear guidance, this council has chosen to ignore it. The Government is making clear this needs to end and, although we hope not to have to, we will take further action should that prove to be necessary.”

South Cambridgeshire District Council said: "Some private sector businesses who work a four-day week choose to close for one whole day during the week - usually a Friday. This is not what the Council is doing because we are maintaining our full opening hours so that they are at least the same as they were before the trial."

Data from the initial three-month trial was analysed independently by the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. The analysis found that nine out of the 16 areas monitored show substantial improvement when comparing the trial period from January to March to the same period in 2022 and the remaining seven areas monitored either remain at similar levels compared to the same period last year or saw a slight decline.

Not a single area of performance fell to a concerning level during the trial.

The council outlines several reasons for trialing the four-day week, including attracting and retaining staff in a competitive local employment market and improving services by filling vacant posts permanently, rather than relying on more expensive agency staff. This has also reduced costs for the council.

The council said: "What we have also found with the four-day week trial so far is that employees have become more committed to the organisation, and their intention to stay with us has increased. This increases our productivity by reducing turnover costs – we can be more consistent in delivering services because we don’t waste time recruiting and training new colleagues. Before the four-day week trial this wasn’t the case – we had high turnover especially in some key service areas."