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A four-day week for local government: value for money and public innovation

15th April 2026
REPORT | Rob Calvert Jump, Luiz Garcia
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Coverage in the Big Issue
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Report summary:

Following South Cambridgeshire District Council’s move to a four-day week and growing scrutiny of reduced working hours at the local level from national government, this briefing establishes that South Cambridgeshire is not an ‘exceptional’ case – but a ‘typical’ local council – and calculates the savings that could be made were its four-day week replicated around the UK.

• South Cambridgeshire District Council saved £371,500 on an annual basis as a result of its move to shorter working hours. This was attributed to reducing its reliance on agency staff and temporary workers.

• As there were just under 750 employees at South Cambridgeshire at the conclusion of its trial, this implies a saving of around £500 per employee per year.

• The briefing finds that South Cambridgeshire can be considered ‘typical’ of two-tier district council in England in terms of three crucial factors that contributed towards the financial savings it made moving to a four-day week:

• the percentage of the local population employed by the local authority.

• the percentage of local authority workers that are casually or temporarily employed.

• agency staffing spend as a percentage of total staffing spend.

• If every lower-tier council in England moved to a four-day week, and followed the example of ‘typical’ South Cambridgeshire’, the savings would be approximately £38 million per year.

• If every local authority in the United Kingdom moved to a four-day week, the total saving would be around £1 billion per year.

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