CRISIS-hit Somerset Council’s finances have been likened to ‘picking up rice pudding in your hands’.

The council has fought to avoid bankruptcy since just after it was formed in 2023 and is one step away from being taken over by Government.

A Best Value Notice was served on it last month by the Government, requiring the authority to take urgent action and to report regularly in writing direct to Ministers.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) finally stepped in after three years of providing ‘exceptional financial support’ to help balance budgets and a one out of five stars ‘weak’ rating from its independent auditors.

Somerset’s catalogue of shame also includes:

  • Running up more than £1 billion debt
  • Losing more than £90 million in a desperate sale of assets to raise funds
  • Making more than 500 employees redundant only to spend £40 million on agency staff
  • Spending £20 million on consultants to tell it how to save money
  • Going through six finance chiefs in four years
  • Ofsted downgrading children’s services
  • Adult social care being given a ‘requires improvement’ rating by the Care Quality Commission

Now, the authority’s executive councillors have warned the current approach to avoiding bankruptcy ‘is not working’ as they faced another £30 million overspend this year.

Somerset Council's County Hall headquarters, in Taunton.
Somerset Council's County Hall headquarters, in Taunton. (Tindle News)

Council leader Cllr Bill Revans said: “We have not in any way sought to keep from anybody the difficulties that our finances have been under, virtually right from day one.

“We want to reassure residents we remain in control of our budgets and continue to be responsible for making decisions locally in the best interests of local people.”

Cllr Revans said the auditor’s report made for ‘sobering reading’ in several places and was like ‘running up the down escalator’.

He said: “If we are achieving savings at the same rate at which demand pressures are increasing, we put ourselves in a position where we are standing still or even going backward.”

Council chief executive Duncan Sharkey said the scale of transformation was ‘not going to be sufficient’ to single-handedly solve all the authority’s financial issues.

Mr Sharkey said: “This is a serious position.

“It is effectively the highest level of intervention which MHCLG has before they start to intervene directly, either in sending in commissioners or instructing us in what to do.

“Despite receiving financial support, we are still in a fragile financial position and the scale of the financial challenge is still very significant.

“The scale of the transformation programme has not yet been sufficient to flatten the demand curve.

“This is about how we turn this authority into a ‘normal’ organisation, where we consistently deliver services to a high standard and have financial stability in the long term.

“We are advancing, but the Government is saying it is not quick enough.”

Cllr Sarah Wakefield said: “This is one of the biggest councils in the country.

“Bringing it all together has been like picking up rice pudding in your hands, there is always something slipping out all over the place.”