Lib Dem councillor toasts success of four-day working week

Labour has previously unveiled a ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper and Sir Ed Davey (James Manning/PA) (PA Wire)

A council leader who defied Conservative ministers’ pleas to drop four-day week working has said “we’re still going, they’re not”.

South Cambridgeshire District Council asks its staff to complete 100% of their work in 80% of the time, for 100% of the pay, as part of a trial which began in January 2023.

At the Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Brighton, Councillor Bridget Smith told the PA news agency she had been “greatly encouraged by what’s coming out of” the new Labour Government, which took office in July.

People are paid a salary to do a job. You are not paid to be a bottom on a seat for x amount of hours

Councillor Bridget Smith, leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council

Conservative ministers had issued the authority near Cambridge with a series of Best Value Notices throughout 2023 and 2024, which contained formal concerns, including that “the working arrangements chosen by the authority could impact on the delivery of its Best Value Duty” and that “the removal of up to a fifth of the capacity of the authority means that it is unlikely in aggregate for it to be able to support continuous improvement”.

At a fringe event on four-day week working, Ms Smith told party activists: “People are paid a salary to do a job.

“You are not paid to be a bottom on a seat for X amount of hours.”

The local government chief added her authority had traced more than £370,000 worth of savings to four-day week working, making savings on agency fees, and added: “Lib Dem councils are evidence driven; we’re not ideologically driven, unlike some.”

Asked about her relationship with new Labour ministers, Ms Smith said: “I’m greatly encouraged by what’s coming out of this Government now.

“They are talking about a four-day week, albeit as compressed hours, which is not the same and I think will not solve the problems that a true four-day week solves, so, you know, it will be good to be able to talk to Government.

“I’m far more optimistic that this Government will talk to me. The last government refused to talk to me despite me sending a number of invitations to various local government ministers saying it would be really good to talk through why we’re doing it and what our results are.

“So I’m reasonably optimistic that this Government is more open-minded about working practices. I am hopeful that they will respect the autonomy of local government to make its own decisions about operation matters.”

Compressed hours would allow employees to work their hours in full, across fewer days.

On whether the Liberal Democrats could adopt a four-day working week in the future, the councillor added: “Getting things to become policy for the Lib Dems is quite a long process, but I’m hopeful that the fact that we’ve been able to speak at this conference means that we’ve sown the seeds for more serious discussions amongst the Lib Dems.”

Labour has previously unveiled a “Plan to Make Work Pay”, which the party in Government has claimed would “make work more family-friendly and improve living standards, putting more money in working people’s pockets to spend, boosting economic growth, resilience and conditions for innovation”.

The Government unveiled plans to bring forward an Employment Rights Bill in the current parliamentary session, as part of July’s King’s Speech.