Ministry rules out reissuing best value notice to council over trial of four-day working week
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will not reissue a best value notice issued to South Cambridgeshire District Council over its trial of a four-day working week, it has been confirmed.
Under a four-day week, officers are expected to carry out 100% of their work, in around 80% of their contracted hours, for 100% of their pay.
The previous government had issued best value notices to South Cambridgeshire in November 2023 and May 2024, in a long-running row over the arrangements. These notices called on the council to demonstrate how it was delivering its best value duty.
In a letter to Liz Watts, South Cambridgeshire’s chief executive, today (8 November), Max Soule Deputy Director, Local Government Stewardship and Intervention at the MHCLG said: “As the Deputy Prime Minister [Angela Rayner] set out in her letter to local authority leaders on 16 July and reiterated on 24 October at the Local Government Association conference, this government is committed to working as partners in power, with mutual respect underpinning our approach. This means an end to micromanaging local authorities.
“Although it is not government policy to support a general move to a four-day working week for five days’ worth of pay, we recognise that local authorities are independent employers who are rightly responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces. We encourage active and ongoing dialogue with the workforce and trade unions on any changes to local working arrangements. In turn, local voters are best placed to make decisions about the effectiveness of local authority services in their own areas.
“With this in mind, the Notice will not be reissued.”
The Leader of South Cambridgeshire, Cllr Bridget Smith, said: “The results from our four-day week trial painted a really positive picture, with many of our services improving. This was along with the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money we saved, improved recruitment and retention plus incredibly significant positives around health and wellbeing.
“We have spent the last year having to submit around 200 pieces of raw data to Government every single week in response to this now-expired Best Value notice – providing lots of evidence demonstrating our Council is functioning very efficiently. Disappointingly, at no point were we given any feedback on the data from Government.
“As today’s letter from MHCLG clearly points out – there is now agreement that councils themselves are best placed to consider what works best for them when it comes to recruiting and retaining the best staff to deliver high-quality services for residents.”
In July this year South Cambridgeshire hailed an independent report on the trial produced by the University of Cambridge and the University of Salford which found that 22 of 24 key performance indicators improved or remained the same.
