Town Hall tight-lipped on four-day week following government’s policy shift

Camden Council has declined to answer whether its new powers to bring in a four-day week for staff will affect its own working practices.

The government recently opened the door for local authorities to begin introducing shorter working weeks for employees if they wished, abandoning the previous Conservative administration’s strong objections to the policy.

Last year, a Cambridgeshire council invited ministers’ fury after trialling a four-day week.

Former minister Lee Rowley ordered South Cambridgeshire District Council to immediately stop the practice in October 2023, warning that his department would  “take necessary steps in the coming months ahead to ensure that this practice is ended within local government”.

On Friday, government officially reversed this stance, as the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Governmnent it sent a letter to the borough council which made clear that councils were “rightly responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces”.

But when asked if this would impact Camden Council’s policy,  the Town Hall press office was tight-lipped.

The local authority is no stranger to flexible working.

For the last decade, the council has worked with social enterprise consultancy Timewise, which works with local governments and businesses to “create stronger, more inclusive workplaces”.

London Borough of Camden was the first to receive a ‘Timewise Council’ certfication, signalling its “driving change in flexible working for its workforce and across the wider community”.

The collaboration has led to the Town Hall’s commitment to both “formal and informal flexible working arrangements”, but the council has not clarified whether a four-day week is on the cards now or in the future.

Timewise, however, is behind a new UK-wide trial of the practice—in partnership with the 4 Day Week Campaign—which has seen 21 organisations and around 1,000 employees sign up.

South Cambridgeshire has said that cutting staff hours by 20 per cent had led to improved recruitment and reduced spending on temporary workers.

Last week, tube drivers called off their strike after they were offered a four-day week, a pay rise and fewer working hours, in a “ground-breaking” deal between Transport for London and unions Aslef and RMT.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives warn that businesses are “petrified” about the government giving workers stronger rights to work one less day per week.

Local government chief Angela Rayner, who previously criticised the Conservatives for “micromanaging” councils in their objections to the policy, has said a four-day week is “no threat to the economy”.

But the government has made clear the arrangement is not official policy.

Yesterday pensions minister Emma Reynolds ruled out the idea of allowing civil servants to work a four-day week.

“We’re not living in the 1970s,” she said.