Minister orders halt to Cambridgeshire council’s four-day week trial ( www.theguardian.com )

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A minister has ordered a Cambridgeshire council to end its “experiment” with a four-day working week.

South Cambridgeshire district council had announced plans to extend its trial until next April but it has been overruled.

The Liberal Democrat-led council was the first local authority in the UK to undertake such a trial. The council had declared the trial a success, saying the impact on recruitment and the health and wellbeing of staff had been “overwhelmingly positive”.

The local government minister, Lee Rowley, wrote to the council leader, Bridget Smith, to “ask that you end your experiment immediately” and said he had concerns about the “value for money” for local taxpayers.