UK Political Clash Over Four-Day Working Week in Public Sector

The Conservative Party has announced a proposal to ban local councils from allowing full-time staff to work a four-day week while receiving full pay. Shadow Local Government Secretary Sir James Cleverly stated that the party would introduce a bill to establish work conditions for public sector workers to prevent this practice if the Conservatives return to power in the next election.

The proposal is framed as a value-for-money measure. Sir James Cleverly argued that taxpayers should not be paying full rates for part-time services and described the current trend of reduced hours without pay cuts as not good value for money.

Opposition to Local Authority Policies

The Conservatives specifically cited the example of the Liberal Democrat-run South Cambridgeshire District Council, which became the first UK council to permanently adopt a four-day working week in July 2025 after a trial that began in 2023. The party claims this policy has resulted in residents paying more council tax for fewer public services, noting that staff such as social housing officials and bin collectors receive 100 per cent of their pay for approximately 80 per cent of their original contracted hours.

The Conservatives further alleged that the Labour government has failed to act against these policies. They claimed that Communities Secretary Angela Rayner scrapped Whitehall opposition to the South Cambridgeshire policy, effectively providing a green light for other councils to follow suit. According to the party, Labour-run Cambridge City Council has since become the second council to sign up for a four-day week.

Government Stance and Intervention

The current Labour government has expressed its own opposition to the practice. On December 23, 2025, Local Government Secretary Steve Reed wrote to all council leaders in England warning against the introduction of four-day working weeks. Reed stated that local authorities should not offer full-time pay for part-time work.

In his correspondence, Reed indicated that council staff undertaking part-time work for full-time pay without compelling justification would be viewed as an indicator of potential failure for the local authority. He noted that the government maintains the power to intervene in any council deemed to be failing.

Reed specifically expressed deep disappointment regarding the decision by South Cambridgeshire District Council. He cited a decline in the performance of the council’s housing service and questioned how the authority intended to mitigate those issues.

Productivity and AI Context

The debate over the four-day week coincides with proposals from OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, to extend the four-day working week as a response to artificial intelligence assuming some tasks previously performed by humans.

Supporters of the shorter week point to data suggesting no dip in productivity and improvements in staff morale and wellbeing. A trial in the Scottish public sector conducted in 2025 reportedly found an increase in productivity.

Data regarding the South Cambridgeshire implementation suggests improvements in several areas, provided that variations caused by Covid are discounted. These areas include:

• The percentage of calls answered by the contact centre.
• The average number of days required to update council tax support and housing benefit claims.
• The average number of weeks for householder planning applications to be decided.
• The percentage of planning applications decided within agreed or target timescales.
• The percentage of council house repairs completed within 24 hours.
• The percentage of complaints responded to on time.

Despite these findings, critics argue that a four-day week reduces overall productivity and slows economic growth. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously rejected demands from civil servants for a four-day working week.

Currently, approximately 1.4 million people are employed by UK local authorities, with annual staffing costs totaling roughly £22bn, according to the Local Government Association.