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Four-day week made permanent at council after vote

Mariam Issimdar & Mousumi Bakshi
BBC News, Cambridgeshire
Emma Howgego/BBC A mostly beige building with a council logo and the words 'South Cambridgeshire District Council' written on it. To the right is a glass frontage with a revolving door. Emma Howgego/BBC
The council has trialled a four-day week since January 2023 and believed it to be a success

A council has voted to permanently adopt a four-day week for staff at full pay following a vote by councillors.

Staff at Liberal Democrat-led South Cambridgeshire District Council have been trialling doing 100% of their work in about 80% of their hours since January 2023, without losing pay.

At a meeting of the full council, 26 councillors voted in favour with nine opposing the policy.

South Cambridgeshire shares some services with Cambridge City Council - waste collections and planning - and the city authority is expected to agree to the working practice at a meeting on 24 July.

Emma Howgego/BBC Heather Williams smiles at the camera. She wears a white top with a navy flowery pattern on it and sunglasses on her head. She sits on a blue office chair next to a beige table. Emma Howgego/BBC
Conservative Heather Williams has been critical of the plans

South Cambridgeshire is understood to be the first council in the UK to introduce the working pattern.

The authority said an independent report from the universities of Salford, Bradford and Cambridge highlighted how 21 out of 24 services at the council had improved or stayed the same since the four-day week began in 2023.

The authority said the report also showed the number of job applicants had risen by more than 120% and there were ongoing yearly savings of £399,263, due to reduced agency staff costs.

But the Conservative group called for more scrutiny of both the trial and the report.

Conservative councillor Heather Williams previously accused the council's leadership of trying to evade scrutiny, and said a residents' survey had "shown that they have seen a decrease in satisfaction across the board".

The council's Labour group had supported the trial.

Bridget Smith smiles at the camera. She wears a red jacket and a black top with a red, blue and purple pattern on it. Above her is a green canopy and a number of vegetable boxes.
Lib Dem leader Bridget Smith told councillors they were making a momentous decision

Speaking to the full council, Liberal Democrat leader Bridget Smith said the trial had been a success due to lower staff turnover and improved recruitment, saying "the revolving door has stopped".

The leader had said having to compete with higher private sector pay in an area of high employment and housing costs had been a problem for the authority.

Conservative Tom Bygott pushed back at the idea that recruitment struggles had to do with workload and said it was due to the area being expensive to live in.

"If you try and call the council on a Monday or a Friday it is incredibly difficult to get hold of anyone," said Mr Bygott.

Ms Smith told the council meeting: "This is the most important decision this council has made in its 50-year history."

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