There will be little respite for Somerset taxpayers after only £5m of additional funding was offered by the government yesterday (January 24)

Somerset Council published proposals in early-January to plug a budget gap of at least £87m for the 2024/25 financial year – including selling off its commercial investments and many assets, raising council tax by ten per cent and implementing more than £35m of cuts to public services.

Two Somerset MPs – Sarah Dyke (Somerton and Frome) and Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater and West Somerset) – were among more than 40 MPs who wrote to the government demanding additional support for councils in light of "unprecedented pressure" on front-line services.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) announced on Wednesday (January 24) that it would be providing an additional £500m to local authorities to reflect rising pressures on children's services and adult social care.

But Somerset will only receive around £5m of this additional funding – meaning the majority of its planned savings and asset sales will still go ahead.

Council leader Bill Revans said he welcomed the additional money but it would not fix the "fundamentally broken" system of local government funding.

He said: "Any extra funding is of course welcome, but £5m will not help us overcome a projected budget shortfall of £100m for next year. 

"We still have a broken model of local government finance and social care funding which needs to be addressed.

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"We have explored all options to reduce our gap and it is clear we will need government approval to increase council tax and use capital funding to create a sustainable council."

Under current rules, the council can only raise council tax by a maximum of 4.99 per cent – of which two per cent must be spent on adult social care.

If the government agrees to allow a ten per cent rise, it will raise an additional £17.1m and bring the average (Band D) council tax bill in Somerset to £1,810 a year – still below the unitary average of £1,815.

More than £35m of savings have been proposed, including the following:

• Closing five of the 16 household waste recycling sites (to save up to £963,000 by April 2026)
• Making efficiency savings in the school transport service (£825,000)
• Abolishing the council-run CCTV services across Somerset town centres (£652,000)
• Increasing car parking charges with inflation (£400,000)
• Closing some libraries by 2026 (£380,000)
• Closing all public toilets (£301,000)
• Restrict recycling sites to Somerset residents by introducing a permit system (£235,000)
• Review supported accommodation for vulnerable residents to ensure the providers deliver value for money (£200,000)
• Increasing the cost of using the Lifeline service (£195,000)
• Keeping the Octagon Theatre closed until the new business case is approved (£174,000)
• Installing no new play equipment until mid-2025 (£168,000)
• Closing the Taunton and Cartgate tourism offices (£167,000)
• Closing the Yeovil Recreation Centre (£165,000)
• Cutting funding for grass cutting and gully clearing (£150,000)
• Scrap four new staff to support children with special needs (£132,000)
• Ending ongoing subsidy to the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton
• Ending school crossing patrols (£41,000)
• Ceasing to lock Blenheim Gardens in Minehead, Wellington Country Park in Wellington and Vivary Park in Taunton at night (£15,000)

The council also intends to use £36m of reserves, and to sell £20m of land, property and other assets by April 2025 – including all the commercial investments inherited from the four district councils.

The government would have to give permission for the proceeds of these capital sales to be used to fund day-to-day spending – known technically as a 'capitalisation direction'.

 To prevent further financial issues after April 2025, the council will undergo a transformation programme to reduce its size and staffing numbers.

The council's corporate and resources scrutiny committee will debate the current budget proposals in Bridgwater on February 2.

Revised proposals will come before the executive in Taunton on February 7, with the final decision being taken by the full council in Bridgwater on February 20.