Farmers hit out at Defra civil servants’ plans for four-day week

Campaign to reduce working hours branded a ‘kick in the teeth’ after inheritance tax rises

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Farmers have hit out at civil servants in the environment department after they claimed reducing their working week to four days for the same pay would save taxpayers millions of pounds.
Union members at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have said a four-day week “will improve the support we provide to our farmers” and save taxpayers £21.4m a year as it would mean fewer sick days and staff resignations.
However, the claims sparked a backlash from farmers who have said they face financial ruin over Rachel Reeves’s inheritance tax raid.
Farmers will have to pay inheritance tax on estates worth more than £1m from April 2026 under changes introduced by the Chancellor in the Budget last month.
Steve Ridsdale, chairman of the British Farming Union, said he was frustrated that civil servants were asking for a four-day week “when asking us to work our socks off to pay a tax bill”.
He said: “It does seem as though they’re asking us to work the next goodness knows how many years to pay the inheritance tax bill without wanting to do much themselves.”
He added that it “looks like they’re asking us to work 15 days a week and them four”.
Jonathan Roberts, of the Country and Land Business Association, said: “This is a dreadful look. We know many Defra staff are very diligent and passionate about the countryside.
“But when farmers and small businesses are breaking their backs to survive in the face of increasingly hostile policies, the knowledge that some civil servants in charge of rural policy are campaigning to reduce their hours is a kick in the teeth.”
A survey of 1,200 staff carried out by Defra economists and published by PCS, the civil service’s biggest union, said a shorter work week would reduce annual staff turnover by 57pc while cutting annual sick days by 65pc.
That would save taxpayers £21.4m a year which is roughly equivalent to the department’s flood defence budget for Northumbria, the research concluded.
Union chiefs are meeting with ministers on Thursday to discuss the findings and push for a four-day week pilot.
However, while 80pc of the staff interviewed said a shorter week would boost their wellbeing, only 31pc expected it to bring productivity benefits.
There are already concerns that allowing government departments and charities to adopt a four-day week would decrease productivity, reduce the quality of services and increase costs.
The PCS is expected to conduct further research into how a four-day week at Defra would work in practice. A Defra spokesman said: “There are no plans for a four-day working week.
Fran Heathcote, its general secretary, said: “We’ve long argued the social, practical and professional benefits of a four-day week. Now this research shows the financial benefits too.
“It also suggests that any opposition to employees working a four-day week is purely ideological. Why else would an employer stand in the way of progress?
“Our members are resolute in their belief that a four-day week is critical to attaining a good quality of life, improving their health and well-being and helping them to meet caring responsibilities, while all the time increasing their productivity.”
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