The scourge of the four-day working week in the public sector is getting a serious grip on the country and it is taxpayers who will once again be losing out. Campaigners and unions now want schools in England and Wales to pilot being open four days a week, instead of five, and parents are rightly kicking off.

This latest development is hot on the heels of a recent decision by South Cambridgeshire District Council to allow their staff to work four days a week but still receive pay for a five-day week. Following a trial that lasted two-and-a-half years, and in spite of declining performance in several key areas, the Liberal Democrat -controlled council finally decided to adopt this as a permanent policy earlier this year.

Predictably, there are now rumblings from other councils arou

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