Council defends four-day working week after minister raises concerns

A council has hit back after a Cabinet minister expressed “deep disappointment” in its move to a four-day working week.

Bridget Smith, leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, insisted her local authority remained “exceptionally high performing” after instituting the four-day week.

She said she had been “extremely disappointed” to receive a letter from Communities Secretary Steve Reed in which he raised concerns about the performance of South Cambridgeshire’s housing service.

Cllr Smith said the move to a four-day week had reduced staff turnover at the council, saving almost £400,000 largely through reducing fees paid to agency workers, and had enabled the authority to fully staff its planning service.

She added that an independent assessment of the change “showed that our performance had either improved or remained the same, bar three areas related to housing”.

In a letter seen by the PA news agency, Mr Reed asked the Liberal Democrat-controlled council to explain reported deteriorations in performance in rent collection, housing repairs and re-letting times for social housing.

He wrote: “If social housing is being built by this Government, and your team are unable to move residents into them so that they are standing empty, then I must reiterate my deep disappointment with your conduct.”

Writing to Mr Reed in response, Cllr Smith said an independent analysis by the universities of Cambridge and Salford had suggested the drop-off in performance in those three areas was “due to factors completely independent of the four-day week”.

She argued that the fall in rent collection was down to cost-of-living problems, and rent arrears remained below the national average, and while the council had fallen short of its “extremely challenging” re-letting targets, it remained in the top 25% of local authorities.

Similarly, she said the council was in the top 25% of authorities for tenant satisfaction with repairs, which were carried out by an external contractor that was not part of the four-day week trial.

Cllr Smith said: “I would actually contend that these indicators would have likely been far worse had we not been fully staffed and able to progress so successfully with a wide range of transformation projects throughout the organisation.”

South Cambridgeshire began offering a four-day week to its staff as part of a trial in January 2023, and moved to adopt the arrangement permanently in July this year.

Under the arrangement, Cllr Smith said, council staff “do 100% of their work in 32 hours each week”.

She told Mr Reed: “Our offices continue to be open five days a week; our contact centre is staffed for longer hours than before we began the trial and all of our emergency services are available 24/7.”

The Government’s policy is that councils should not offer “full-time pay for part-time work”.

But in his own letter, Mr Reed acknowledged that local authorities were “independent employers” and Westminster could not instruct them to require a five-day week.

He added: “Our collective focus on delivering value for money for taxpayers must be unyielding.”

Mr Reed also invited Cllr Smith to meet Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government officials to provide “assurance” that “value for money for residents is being delivered”.

Cllr Smith said she was “more than happy” to meet officials.

A spokesperson for the Ministry said: “Local authorities are independent employers and we won’t micromanage them – but our focus must be on delivering value for money for taxpayers.

“We are concerned about the impact a four-day working week has had on some local services in South Cambridgeshire and have asked the council to explain how services will be protected for residents.”