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POLICY AND POLITICS

Reed raises concerns over four-day week

Local government secretary Steve Reed has raised concerns about South Cambridgeshire DC’s four-day week.

Local government secretary Steve Reed © repic/shutterstock

Local government secretary Steve Reed © repic/shutterstock

Local government secretary Steve Reed has raised concerns about South Cambridgeshire DC's four-day week. 

In a letter to council leader Bridget Smith, Reed said an ‘independent report' had shown that ‘performance declined in key housing-related services, including rent collection, reletting times and tenant satisfaction with repairs'.

Reed said he would ‘like to understand how the council is seeking to mitigate the impact to those services that have worsened over the course of four-day working week trial' and requested a meeting with Cllr Smith to ‘provide that assurance'.

Cllr Smith has agreed to meet to discuss Reed's concerns.

In a statement, she said: ‘The independently assessed data for the trial showed that all key performance indicators had either improved or remained the same, bar three relating to housing.

‘Independent analysis shows that these three isolated indicators were due to factors completely independent of the four-day working week and we are, in fact, in the top quartile nationally and performance is improving further.'

 

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