Michael Gove calls for end to four-day week trial at South Cambridgeshire District Council

The Levelling-Up Secretary says council staff should not be working four-day weeks.

Michael Gove said council tax payers "deserve" for local staff to work a "full five-day week" after ministers advised South Cambridgeshire District Council to end its experiment of offering employees a three-day weekend in exchange for longer shifts.

But the Liberal Democrat-run council defended the trial and has not yet ended its four-day week experiment.

The council's leader said the scheme had helped reduce the local authority's annual bill by £300,000. It was the first local council to undertake such a trial.

On Tuesday, Mr Gove spoke at the Local Government Association (LGA) conference in Bournemouth and said he agreed with "value-for-money concerns" by local government minister Lee Rowley.

Mr Gove said: “The key thing is that I believe very strongly, as indeed does the minister for local government, that when taxpayers are paying for services, they need to have people working a full five-day week.

“It seems to me that for every penny that is paid in council tax, we deserve, all of us, to see those working in local government working what is a full working week for those who are council taxpayers as well.”

South Cambridgeshire District Council had announced plans to extend its trial until next April, but Mr Rowley wrote to council leader Bridget Smith on Friday to “ask that you end your experiment immediately”, saying it was inappropriate for local authorities.

Mr Gove said councils would have different ways of managing and motivating staff but that should not come in the form of a truncated working week.

Mr Gove continued: “I’m a strong believer that a five-day working week is what so many of our other citizens are facing, and they need to work those five days in order to be able to pay their council tax and meet their other needs.

“A five-day working week seems to me to be what we should expect of people in public service who are having their wages paid by those council taxpayers.”

There has been growing interest in four-day week experiments in the UK and globally, with some businesses praising the shift for creating a better work-life balance.

But Mr Rowley said such an approach could breach South Cambridgeshire District Council’s legal duties under the Local Government Act.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will “shortly be issuing clear guidance” on the matter, he added.

Council leader Ms Smith defended the scheme saying it had helped address the council's reliance on expensive agency staff, and reduced its annual bill by £300,000.

She said that performance was maintained and in some cases, improved in the first three months of the trial.

She said in a statement: “At the start of our trial we were carrying a £2 million annual agency bill. During the first three months of the trial, we filled four permanent posts that had previously been impossible to fill.

“This has reduced our annual bill by £300,000.

“As time goes on it is becoming 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.”

She replied to Mr Rowley on Saturday, asking for a meeting with ministers.

On Tuesday a council spokesperson confirmed the local authority was continuing to operate with a four-day working week.

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