SOMERSET Council will be relying on laying off its own staff in order to set a balanced budget for the coming year.

The council declared a financial emergency in November 2023 and was only able to set a balanced budget in February by agreeing to significant savings, job cuts and the sale of both commercial investments and surplus land and property.

As part of its budget proposals for 2025/26, the council has identified nearly £44m of new savings as it seeks to plug a projected budget gap of nearly £98m.

But the majority of these new savings will come from slimming down its workforce, with the ongoing consultation exercise expected to conclude before Christmas and up to 450 posts being at risk.

The budget was discussed in detail by the council’s executive committee when it met in Taunton on Monday (December 2).

The council is currently projecting a budget gap of £97,796,000 for 2025/26, based on current demand for services, inflation, interest rates and a range of other factors.

To help close this gap, new savings have been identified (on top of those agreed and implemented earlier this year) to the tune of £43.950,000.

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The largest single saving – of £34m – will come from the council’s “workforce reduction programme”, with compulsory redundancies following on from voluntary redundancies within its senior leadership team earlier in the year.

A spokesman said: “The workforce reduction programme is designed as an enabler for the wider transformation and innovation programme.

“This will be achieved through a smaller, leaner organisation and delivered through the voluntary redundancy scheme offered earlier this year and the whole council restructuring programme, which is due to be implemented by April 1, 2025.

“Ongoing staffing budgets will be managed through ongoing governance around recruitment and use of agency staff to maintain strong establishment controls.”

Other significant savings identified include:

  • £9m of replacement services from across all departments, to replace savings identified in the 2024/25 budget which could not be implemented
  • Up to £3.9m from changes to the council tax reduction scheme, which will see the levels of support harmonised and reduced for some groups
  • £3.7m through better health commissioning as part of the My Life, My Future programme, intended to “maintain or increase” people’s level of independence
  • £500,000 from selling off council offices which are underutilised
  • £300,000 in additional income from the council’s rural enterprise centres

The remaining budget gap will be partially plugged by an increase in council tax, with any remainder needing to be filled either by raiding the council’s reserves or selling off additional assets.

Deputy leader Liz Leyshon said a more accurate picture would become available once the government confirmed the funding settlement for local authorities shortly before Christmas.

She said: “We have had indications from the minister of changes to grants, but we are still some way off the final settlements.

“So this is clearly a work in progress on the way to our budget setting in February.”

Councillor Sue Osborne (who represents Ilminster and the surrounding villages) said the council’s costs could rise sharply if the government did not provide more support for care providers in the face of the planned national insurance rise in April 2025.

She said: “If government continues to turn a deaf ear, we’ve got problems ahead.”

While the council is forecasting a big budget gap for next year, it is currently predicting an underspend for the current financial year of £8.479,000.

However, this figure is based on service demand up to the end of September – meaning that the position could still change drastically before the end of the winter.

Councillor Sarah Wakefield, portfolio holder for adults services, housing and homelessness, said: “I’m really pleased to see that things are mostly going in the right direction – though any savings we make just go into reducing our use of capital receipts and reserves.

“We are using fewer agency staff, which are expensive, and we can get people working for us at the rates we want to pay.”

Council leader Bill Revans recently met with Somerset’s seven MPs, asking for their support ahead of the local government finance settlement for the coming year being announced.

He said: “The funding crisis facing local government goes beyond Somerset, but it has very real impacts on our residents, communities and businesses.

“Regardless of party politics, we need the support of all our MPs to advocate for Somerset with the government.

“It was a hugely positive first meeting with representatives from all seven MPs in attendance and I am grateful for their time.

“By working together as a ‘Team Somerset’ approach we stand the best possible chance of making sure our voices are heard.”

Further reports on the council’s budget and financial position will come before the council’s executive committee each month, with the final budget expected to be set by the full council on February 19, 2025.