Green-led London council planning to introduce a four-day working week

A Green-led London council run is planning to trial a four-day week for employees.

The move by Lambeth Council is understood to be the first of its kind by a local authority in London.

The Green Party mayors of Hackney and Lewisham also said they were looking at the policy, according to the Telegraph.

Martin Abrams, the leader of Lambeth Council, said the local authority was “pushing ahead” with the pilot of a shorter week for its employees.

According to the Telegraph, on the fringes of the Green Party conference in Brighton this weekend, Mr Abrams said he believed the policy would ensure a “better work-life balance” for employees as well as “increased productivity [and] better workers’ rights”.

He added: “There’s a real problem in local authorities with staff retention and turnover. It costs local authorities tens of millions of pounds every year in terms of recruitment and those staffing costs. So, if there’s anything that we can do to stem that by being bold and looking at things like a four-day week, we’ll do it."

“I’m really proud that Lambeth is pushing ahead with a trial of the four-day week,” the Lambeth council leader said.

The Telegraph said it understood that Mr Abrams has instructed council officers to look at proposals for a four-day week trial and how it will be implemented. Mr Abrams told Green Party delegates there was so far no date in place for when the trial would take place. The Standard has contacted Lambeth Council for comment.

Mayor of Lewisham, Liam Shrivastava

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Liam Shrivastava, the mayor of Lewisham who won power in the May elections, is said to have cited the example of South Cambridgeshire district council, which has permanently adopted a four-day working week, when discussing the idea at a fringe event at the party conference in Brighton.

He said he needed to look at how the policy could be implemented at a unitary authority such as Lewisham, a bigger organisation which is responsible for all government services.

“There could be potential challenges there, but very open to a trial or review and seeing how it can work,” he told a fringe event, according to the Telegraph.

He added: “We obviously are controlling several councils in London, but I think the whole of society should be moving towards a four-day week.

“So if we can show that sort of leadership at the London council level, that could be really exciting about how we can shift things in terms of how the economy is managed.”

Mayor of Hackney Zoë Garbett attends a panel discussion during Day Two of the Green Party Conference in Brighton

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Zoe Garbett, the mayor of Hackney, also confirmed that she was also looking at implementing a four-day week in her borough, the Telegraph reported.

James Cleverly, who is bidding to become the Conservative candidate for London mayor, slammed the policy and said Londoners should not have to pay the same level of council tax if their local authority had a four-day week.

He told The Telegraph: “Why should Londoners who work hard five days a week to deal with higher taxes and higher house prices be expected to pay for an extra day off for their local councils?"

Steve Reed, the former communities secretary when Sir Keir Starmer’s was Prime Minister ordered all leaders of English councils last December not to adopt a four-day week.

He warned leaders that they may be considered to be failing if staff are paid a full week’s wages for four days of work.

Councils are free to set their own policies on a four-day week, but the Government is able to take control of an authority if it is deemed to be failing.