Council staff costing taxpayers £3m a day in sick leave as absences doubled compared to private sector

Council staff taking sick days are costing taxpayers £3million a day, new research has revealed.

Members of local councils are now taking twice as many sick days as private-sector workers, costing £667million.

Research by The Taxpayers Alliance shows their absence rate is almost a third higher than the rest of the public sector.

Research shows council staff take 10 call-in sick days on average.

Mental health reasons now account for a quarter of all employee absences, and is thought to be driving the figures.

Shimeon Lee, a policy analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told The Telegraph: “Local authorities are letting absenteeism spiral out of control. Council bosses cannot plead poverty while failing to manage their own staff, which leaves taxpayers with a multi-billion pound bill for lost working days and expensive temporary cover.

“It’s time for town halls to get a grip on staff sickness, cap expensive agency use, and prove they can get the most out of their existing workforce before demanding more cash.”

Whilst sick days are costing £3million, councils are increasingly relying on agency staff, which is now £2billion a year.

The research from the think tank confirms that £176million has been lost to sick days taken for specifically mental health reasons.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance has added up that sick days cost 9 million working days every year, the equivalent of 41,302 full-time roles.

David Taylor, a former councillor who co-wrote the report, said: “Local authorities cannot keep being held hostage by expensive staffing agencies, spending £8.5m of taxpayer’s money every day.

“The huge variation in agency costs, and the percentage of staff on agency contracts, shows that the dependence is not inevitable.

“Agency staff have a role to play in short-term cover, but many local authorities appear to have agency staff in post for years.

“This includes in senior positions. They need to get a grip on recruitment and retention, build stronger in-house teams, and get costs down.”

The think tank has also called for ministers to respond by telling councils that additional funding would be dependent on reducing the number of sick days.

It added the Government should clamp down on local authorities’ use of agency workers, and make councils publish more transparent data on absences.

The figures were acquired under Freedom of Information requests, and show information from 2022-2025.

Fenland District Council in Cambridgeshire had the highest proportion of days lost to mental health absence.

The local council offers a “generous” holiday allowance, as well as discounted access to areas ”to enjoy hybrid working”.

It also has “mental health first aiders” who “deliver campaigns and fundraising activities to embed mental health awareness across the council”.