‘Our Green council can't do the basics like fix potholes – now they want a four-day week'

Telegraph

9 hours ago

In his days as a prop forward for the Scotland rugby team, Norrie Rowan was known as a powerhouse – a player who wouldn't let anyone get in his way. But even he admits he almost met his match with the bureaucracy of Edinburgh council 's planning department.
The businessman, who was capped 13 times for the national side in the 1980s, has owned and let a portfolio of rental properties for many years. But new regulations in Scotland require anyone running short-term lets to apply for both planning permission and a licence.
And although Rowan's experiences in the front row of the scrum had prepared him for a struggle, he was astonished by the difficulties he encountered when negotiating council officialdom. 'It's more exasperating than you can imagine,' the 73-year-old explains.
'The properties were ready. The process could have been signed off in no time – but it was hit by delay after delay. Trying to get through to anyone on the phone was impossible and no one ever seemed to respond to emails or messages. It just felt like nothing was happening. It stretched out for months.'
Rowan still has another application pending – as have hundreds of other property owners in the city who hope to let out their houses and flats. But however bad the system is now, he fears it will only get worse. For the City of Edinburgh Council is currently considering a controversial move: the introduction of a four-day week for its staff.
Although exact details haven't yet been finalised, the measure will likely mean a significant number of the authority's 18,000 employees being handed a 20 per cent reduction in their working hours... but without any equivalent reduction in pay.
The four-day week is a radical idea that, with the backing of unions and the Left-wing parties, is gaining traction in town halls across the UK. According to the Green councillor championing the idea in Edinburgh, it simply has no downside.
Claire Miller, who represents central Edinburgh, claims reduced hours would offer employees a better work-life balance, making them happier and more productive, and so lead to improved delivery of services for residents. In June, her motion – that the council should explore the benefits of a four-day week and examine how best to implement it – was backed by the Labour group which runs the city, as well as the SNP and the Liberal Democrats.
After the vote, Miller said: 'Under a four-day week, our services would remain as they are, with no changes as far as residents are concerned. It's that rare 'unicorn' policy, one where we can help our budgets but also provide genuine benefits for our workers – and our residents.'
For Rowan, Miller's 'unicorn' comparison seems appropriate.
'It's a mythical creature. Totally made up!' he says with exasperation. 'Giving staff a day off will just make things worse. Contacting the council will be even harder if staff are working fewer days.
'At the moment, in summer, things already feel like they grind to a halt as different people in different departments take time off for holidays. But with a four-day week, it will be like that all year round – the whole process will just slow down even further. It's preposterous.'
Edinburgh's push towards reduced hours follows South Cambridgeshire District Council last month becoming the first in the UK to permanently adopt a four-day week for its staff – including bin collectors, tax administrators and housing officials. The council confirmed staff will carry out '100 per cent of their work in around 80 per cent of their contracted hours, without reduction in pay'.
A limited trial of the four-day week had been running since 2023 – although opinions differ about the outcome. An independent analysis cited by the council claimed 21 out of 24 local services improved or stayed the same. But a survey of residents by market research company DJS Research looking at 13 services found that three became worse under the scheme with bin collections, council tax services and the customer contact centre showing 'statistically significant decrease'.
Meanwhile The Telegraph has revealed that five councils – including Edinburgh, plus Glasgow, Belfast, Fermanagh and Omagh – are actively considering a four-day week, and a further 25 are discussing it internally. According to campaign group the Four Day Week Foundation, change can't come quickly enough. It states: 'The nine-to-five, five-day working week is outdated and no longer suits the realities of modern life. We invented the weekend a century ago and are long overdue an update.'
For Miller, the policy is a vital reaction to staff burn-out caused by years of growing workload and budget cuts.
'We've put so much pressure on our workers that it's really hard for them to be productive because they're all really stressed,' she says. 'We've got huge sickness absence rates with work-related stress, depression and anxiety. But if we can pay more attention to what would make workers well, and well-rested, when they come to work, that will have benefits in terms of them being able to deliver services.'
She adds: 'Exactly what a four-day week looks like still needs to be decided. But we need to pull back from the idea that you can just ask people to deliver more and more and more – because they clearly can't.
'Instead, we need to design something that both allows delivery of service outcomes, but also reduces the working week for workers, mindful of their physical and mental well-being.'
Unsurprisingly, not everyone in Edinburgh – where residents have just been hit with an 8 per cent hike in council tax – backs her proposal. One major complaint from businesses in the city is that delays in the planning system are directly harming people's livelihoods. Tourism is a major part of the economy, with hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world drawn each year by the famous Castle which dominates the city skyline and by the annual International and Fringe festivals
But, as with Rowan, the crackdown on short-term lets is imposing a huge burden of red tape on anyone wishing to let out a property – with the system facing a massive backlog.
Fiona Campbell, the chief executive of the Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers, says: 'There are already significant and damaging delays within City of Edinburgh council's planning department for processing licensing applications for short-term lets, and I don't see how working fewer days is going to help this at all. It is far more likely that this unnecessary move will makes things even worse.'
The key argument by those in favour of the four-day week – that asking staff to work fewer hours actually boosts productivity – is met with some scepticism by Edinburgh's Tories. Cllr Christopher Cowdy explains: 'It's not that people feel the four-day week is necessarily a ghastly idea in itself. It's just that so many residents feel the city is run badly. The basics are not being done properly: the potholes, the litter, the weeding, the bin collections, the graffiti, the dog-fouling.
'Things aren't working as they should, yet the council is looking at reducing the hours of its staff.
'Increasing productivity is key to improving service delivery and improving how people feel about the services they're receiving from the council. But how do you get more productivity from working fewer hours – especially when it comes to manual work like weeding or bin collection?'
Another key claim for the four-day week is that it allows staff to enjoy a better work-life balance – which advocates of the policy say could solve intractable staffing issues in the council.
Miller says: 'Ultimately, providing more attractive work terms and conditions could improve problems of recruitment and staff retention and save money on agency staff.'
But Cowdy warns a four-day week risks alienating taxpayers and many in the private sector for where a four-day week is rarely an option by handing a perceived perk to publicly-funded staff. 'People could well be ticked off if they're struggling or facing difficulties in life while the council workers they are paying for are having a greatly improved work-life balance,' he argues.
And he warns the scheme might also backfire if staff use their extra day off to take up a part-time job.
He says: 'Human nature suggests many won't use the extra day to improve their work-life balance, they will simply use it for a side hustle to earn themselves more money. That would cause an issue with the public because it would hand council staff a significant increase in their earning ability.'
Council officials are now preparing a report exploring whether a four-day week could improve recruitment, retention, productivity and health of council workers – and what the options might be for implementing the policy.
A council spokesperson said: 'As approved by full council, a report will be brought to a future Finance and Resources Committee. The report will examine this issue in more detail including reviewing evidence from other organisations.'
Cowdy, who sits on the committee, believes that, whatever the findings, the public must be consulted before the four-day week is introduced.
'It's an issue of public trust,' he insists. 'The taxpayers who are paying for the council salaries have to be comfortable about these proposals. Currently, it's an incredibly difficult message for the council to sell – even if it can actually be shown that reduced hours increase productivity.
'If the council simply says yes, we know your council tax is going up, and yes, we know there are lots of complaints about services, but we're going to allow staff earn the same wages but work 20 per cent fewer hours – that's just not going to go down well with the vast majority of residents.'