The government has threatened to withdraw funding from local councils if they ignore its warnings against adopting a four-day week.
Levelling up minister Michael Gove said the government would use “financial levers” to disincentivise councils from allowing staff to work fewer hours while maintaining full-time pay, and urged local authorities that are considering or trialling shorter work weeks to stop them immediately.
He said in a written statement to Parliament: “We have made it clear that any attempt from a local authority to implement part time work for full time pay – for example, a so called ‘four-day week’ or equivalent arrangements – is contrary to the interests of local taxpayers. This working practice does not represent good value for taxpayers’ money, nor places the sector in a good light with the public.”
In October the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published non-statutory guidance that suggested the government “does not support a four-day working week in local authorities, as it does not believe that it delivers local taxpayers value for money”.
Four-day week
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It followed interventions by MPs including Lee Rowley, who ordered South Cambridgeshire District Council to end its four-day week trial. South Cambridgeshire has continued with the practice despite the warnings and criticism about how the pilot’s results had been presented.
The government is now consulting on proposals to use “financial levers” to stop the practice, and is seeking to determine which local authorities’ current or proposed operations for 2024-25 fall within the definition of the four-day working week.
The consultation indicates that the government will “legislate if necessary” to prevent councils from adopting the arrangement.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities issued a “best value notice” to South Cambridgeshire District Council on 3 November after repeated requests for the authority to end its trial.
The council said it was providing data to the government concerning its four-day week trial, which it expects to run until March 2024.
Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, Bridget Smith, said: “We are surprised to see the government even considering this action. However, we know that they are entirely ideologically opposed to the principle of a four-day week in councils, regardless of what the data is suggesting.
“We are currently having to submit 186 pieces of raw data to government every single week in response to their best value notice, so they’ve got lots of evidence to show our council is functioning very efficiently indeed… Councils are not wasteful despite what this government chooses to believe.
“A four-day week is very much the 21st-century way and has been widely adopted in the private sector. If it works there, it needs to have a fair trial in the public sector; that is all we are asking as we try to find innovative ways to attract and keep talented colleagues in an incredibly competitive local employment market.”
A recent government-funded four-day week trial in Portugal found that there were improvements in employee mental health and wellbeing and a reduction in the number of staff struggling with work-life balance.
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