At least £2.1bn was spent on agency staff by councils across the UK last year, according to analysis by the 4 Day Week Campaign.
Nic Murray, researcher and member of the 4 Day Week Campaign, called the spending on agency staff a ‘colossal waste of taxpayers’ money’.
Freedom of information requests made by the national campaign group found that for the 2022-23 financial year, councils’ spending on agency staff amounted to 6% of their total spend on staff.
234 of 382 UK local authorities responded to the request for information.
The organisation said spending on agency staff has been rising year on year, with £1.8bn spent in 2021-22 and £1.6bn in 2020-21.
Slough’s spending on agency workers as a percentage of its total staff spending was highest, amounting to 42%.
The 4 Day Week Campaign argues that adopting a four-day working week would help councils improve job retention and recruitment across local government.
Earlier this year, South Cambridgeshire District Council became the first UK local authority to trial a four-day working week, with no loss in pay for staff.
The council said that before trialling the shorter week, it was spending around £2m a year on agency staff. Analysis found that the authority’s annual wage bill decreased by £300,000 after the three-month trial.
If this article was of interest, then check out our feature, 'Who’s afraid of the four-day week?'
