The previous Conservative government objected to the plan by South Cambridgeshire District Council after it was introduced in 2023. But local government secretary Angela Rayner has criticised the previous administration for “micromanaging” local authorities over the policy.
The four-day working week continued past the end of its trial period in March this year as the council awaited information from ministers. While it is not official government policy to support a four-day working week, and the government has no plans to consider such a move, ministers are no longer objecting to it.
A letter from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to the Cambridgeshire authority on Friday said councils are “rightly responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces”.
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”.
This story is from the November 10, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 10, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Usyk outpoints Fury again to retain heavyweight titles
Oleksandr Usyk beat Tyson Fury on points on Saturday to do the double over the Briton, retaining the unified heavyweight titles in the process.
Jesus punishes Palace to reignite Arsenal title fight
Gabriel Jesus’s first-half brace fired Arsenal to an emphatic 5-1 win against Crystal Palace to take them within three points of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League.
Resigned Guardiola signals City's complete breakdown
An obsessive Spanish manager had taken his adopted club to rare heights.
How the malicious Grinch bots’ are stealing Christmas
When my brother-in-law tried to buy a Barbie gymnast as a Christmas present for my daughter last week, the doll kept disappearing from every online store he visited.
Pope warns Vatican staff on gossiping and backstabbing
Pope Francis used his annual Christmas greetings to tell Vatican bureaucrats to stop speaking ill of one another, warning that gossip is an \"evil\".
'I feared I'd end up in the trench like the other bodies'
Reporting from the site of a mass grave around 25 miles from the Syrian capital, Bel Trew speaks to a man who dug out the trenches before realising the horror of what was happening
Christmas market atrocity will further divide the West
Does terrorism work? It depends what the aim of the perpetrator is and in the case of Friday night's Magdeburg Christmas market attack it's not as clear cut as it may have seemed in the immediate aftermath.
Germany mourns as death toll from market attack rises
Saudi doctor held after car ploughs into crowd at Christmas event, leaving five people dead and dezens more sala
'Good vibes': winter solstice is celebrated at Stonehenge.
Thousands gathered at Stonehenge yesterday as they greeted the sun with cheers and applause to mark the winter solstice.
Children born thanks to IVF pioneer find biological father is scientist at his lab
Questions have been raised about one of the UK's most wellknown fertility doctors after two people whose parents attended his clinic reportedly made the shock discovery that their biological father is a lab scientist who worked in the same hospital as the physician.
