A SELL-off of assets by bankruptcy threatened Somerset Council raised £90.8 million in the last financial year, but only £35 million is likely to be achieved from further sales this year.

The council, which declared a financial emergency in November, 2023, has been struggling to balance its books in the light of rising demand for children’s services and adult social care.

It has significantly raised council tax and laid off several hundred staff as part of an ongoing ‘transformation programme’.

And it has been given Government permission to use some of the proceeds of its assets sale to fund frontline services which should otherwise be paid for from council tax income.

Head of commercial investment Robert Orrett updated councillors on Monday (July 14) on progress with selling commercial properties inherited from Somerset’s four previous district councils, which had bought them with borrowed money to try to generate rental income.

Mr Orrett said rental income had dropped 10 per cent following the sales and was now just under £10 million.

He said nearly 13 per cent of the available commercial units were currently vacant.

The disposal strategy was generally to bring forward properties for sale which were fully let, but the council was experiencing more and more concentration of properties with ‘management challenges’.

The Liberal Democrat-run council came under fire this week from Conservative opposition councillors after admitting it still needed to save another £190 million over the next five years to become financially sustainable - but it did not know how it could.

Conservative group leader Cllr Diogo Rodrigues said there was a lack of urgency and clarity, despite the scale of the financial crisis.

He said: “I fear the council is moving too slowly and ultimately it is residents, as council taxpayers, who will pay the price for delay and indecision.”