'Not acceptable' | Minister orders 'immediate halt' to four day week trial

South Cambridgeshire District Council's ground breaking experiment with a four-day working week is facing an abrupt end, following a directive from local Government minister Lee Rowley.

The council, the first in the UK to embark on such a trial, had intended to extend the initiative until April, but concerns about the "value for money" for local taxpayers prompted the minister's intervention.

In a letter addressed to Liberal Democrat council leader Bridget Smith, Rowley requested an immediate termination of the experiment, expressing doubts about its cost-effectiveness.

Referring to the council's duty to utilise taxpayers' funds judiciously, he emphasised that paying employees for an additional day of work not carried out was ‘unlikely to demonstrate value for money’.