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Local Government Secretary Steve Reed has written to all council leaders in England warning them not to introduce four-day working weeks.<\/p>\n
As reported by the Telegraph, the letter is understood to say that “council staff undertaking part-time work for full-time pay without compelling justification would be considered an indicator, among a wide range of factors, of potential failure”.<\/p>\n
He added that he hoped he had made the government’s policy “unambiguously clear to all councils”. <\/p>\n
A Labour source said “Voters deserve high standards and hard work from local councils, and seeing council staff working a four-day week just won’t cut it.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“They should get on with the job and make sure residents get the best service possible five days a week,” the source added.<\/p>\n
In the letter to the councils, which was reported by The Telegraph<\/a>, Reed says that local authorities should not be offering “full-time pay for part-time work”.<\/p>\n Reed previously expressed his “deep disappointment”<\/a> in the first UK council to adopt a four-day working week.<\/p>\n South Cambridgeshire District Council, which is led by the Liberal Democrats, became the first to make a permanent move to a four-day week in July after it began trialling a shorter working week in 2023.<\/p>\n Reed said there had been a decline in performance in the council’s housing service and he sked how the local authority would “mitigate” this.<\/p>\n The government can intervene in any council if it is deemed to be failing.<\/p>\n Last year Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also rejected civil servants’ demands for a four-day working week.<\/p>\n Critics of a four-day week say it would reduce productivity and slow economic growth but others disagree. <\/p>\n