Order given to halt four-day week experiment by Cambridgeshire council

Ahead of the Government’s publication of new guidance, local authorities are being advised against implementing four-day working weeks. This intervention comes as a response to the unfeasibility of such shorter workweeks, which will be outlined in a briefing from Westminster to all councils.

During a trial period, South Cambridgeshire encountered several challenges, including reduced bin collections on Mondays, affecting approximately 131,000 households. The council presented the four-day week pilot as part of a larger transformation program.

Interestingly, Liz Watts, the council boss of South Cambridgeshire, was discovered to be secretly working on a PhD thesis about four-day working weeks in May, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

Further south, Swale Borough Council has also implemented a policy of allowing workers to have Friday afternoons off. This decision was made on the grounds that there was typically less demand for council services at that time.

In conjunction with this issue, research conducted by the TaxPayers’ Alliance revealed that average band D council tax bills in England have tripled over the past 30 years, resulting in a real terms increase of 79%. Elliot Keck, investigations campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, stated that local taxpayers would be pleased to see the Government’s opposition to the council clock-off.

Keck argued that a local authority, which residents rely on for essential services, is not the appropriate venue for an experimental four-day week. Thus, any other public sector body considering similar trials should scrap their plans in favor of taxpayers.

Despite requests for comment, South Cambs District Council did not respond.