Lambeth Eyes London’s First Council Four-Day Week

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Lambeth Council is preparing a four-day working week trial for its staff, which would make it the first London local authority to formally pursue one. Council leader Martin Abrams is reported to be pushing ahead with the plan, and two neighbouring boroughs are already peeking over the fence to see how it goes.

32 hours, full pay, conditions apply

Under the proposed structure, full-time staff in the trial would work about 32 hours across four days while keeping 100% of their standard pay. The catch, as with most well-run four-day experiments, is performance: the full salary depends on meeting set outputs. According to internal strategy documents cited in coverage, the trial is meant to ease recruitment bottlenecks in public sector administration, reduce burnout and improve staff retention.

Green Party leaders in Hackney and Lewisham have said their administrations are assessing similar trials, though Lambeth is furthest along. The boroughs may pool data and benchmark performance across services such as urban planning, environmental health and housing administration, which would give the experiment a rare thing in this debate: comparable numbers.

The South Cambridgeshire precedent

Supporters point to South Cambridgeshire District Council, which began a trial for desk-based staff in January 2023 and later extended it to its waste collection teams. That council reported lower agency staff costs and better retention, results that have made it the go-to example for every UK council considering the idea.

Not everyone is convinced. Opposition councillors and central government officials have raised concerns about value for money, service accessibility and delivery. Critics warn of reduced frontline coverage, longer waits for council tax and housing enquiries, and extra costs if backfill staff are needed. Key details are also still missing: there is no start date, no number of staff involved and no cost estimate for the pilot yet. For now, the four-day week in Lambeth is a plan with a promising headline and a lot of spreadsheets still to fill in.