LOCAL MPs Rachel Gilmour and Gideon Amos will be meeting Local Government Minister Alison McGovern on Wednesday (January 14) to demand more money for Somerset Council.

Mrs Gilmour, the Tiverton and Minehead constituency MP, and Mr Amos, who represents Taunton and Wellington, will join other Somerset MPs upset about the level of this year’s Government proposal for a local government financial settlement.

They said under the proposal Somerset would receive only a ‘marginal’ £3 million increase in funding, totalling £252 million.

It appeared that nearly all of the increased cost of care for adults and children in Somerset, a duty prescribed by Government, and of other services, would have to be met by council tax increases.

The MPs also feared Somerset would lose out significantly on income received from business rate collection.

They said it would create serious challenges for both the council and the communities they represented.

In a letter to the Minister, the MPs said: “While any increase is welcome, Somerset faces a unique and acute combination of pressures, a large and ageing population, significant rurality, higher costs of service delivery, and sustained growth in demand for adult social care, children’s services, and support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

“Despite these well‑established pressures, the settlement fails to provide Somerset with the level of funding required even to maintain core services, let alone to invest in prevention and long‑term resilience.”

Mrs Gilmour and Mr Amos said the funding increase fell well short of inflation and rising demand, while ongoing reliance on short‑term grants and one‑off funding streams undermined financial stability and made effective long‑term planning extremely difficult.

Their letter also said: “Somerset’s relatively modest local tax base cannot reasonably be expected to close the growing funding gap, placing an unfair burden on residents who are already facing acute cost‑of‑living pressures.

“These concerns are echoed by the County Councils Network, which has warned recent changes to the Government’s original proposals have disproportionately benefited London and metropolitan boroughs at the expense of county and rural areas.

“The network has highlighted that the continuation of the recovery grant and the removal of ‘remoteness’ from almost the entire funding formula will divert hundreds of millions of pounds from rural to urban areas over the next three years.

“It has further raised serious questions about whether these last-minute changes, amount to Ministers unfairly cherry picking which councils benefit from additional funding.”

Mrs Gilmour and Mr Amos said the settlement risked forcing further reductions to ‘non‑statutory but highly valued services that underpin community wellbeing and economic resilience’.

They feared public transport, highway repairs, art and culture, libraries, and local infrastructure would all be affected.

The MPs want the Government to provide a sustainable, multi‑year funding framework which gave councils the certainty required for effective financial planning, and deliver a credible, long‑term solution to the funding of adult social care and SEND.

They said: “Somerset’s residents deserve a fair funding settlement that enables their council to meet statutory obligations and to support thriving, resilient, communities.”