Four-day week Cambridgeshire council attacks ‘culture war’ notice

The notice by the Conservative government asked the council to demonstrate it was offering value to taxpayers by introducing four-day weeks, external.

The weeks involve staff working 80% of the hours they used to, but for the same pay.

The authority began the trial in early 2023 to see if it would improve staff recruitment and retention problems, and boost productivity and wellbeing.

At a full council meeting on Thursday, Ms Smith said: “Looking back, the Best Value Notice seems to be reactionary, politically motivated, a fruitless attempt to stoke up a culture war, and we are still here and the last government is not.

“I hope that moving forward politics will be taken out of this, because at the end of the day it is operational. This is about finding ways of delivering the very best services possible to our residents.

“The fact that we have happy, healthy, well-motivated, highly productive staff is what we should all be aspiring to.”

Regarding when the trial would end, the authority said it was awaiting clarity from the government on the financial settlement for 2025-26. Once gained, the Liberal Democrats, which run the council, said they planned to run a consultation on the next steps.