Somerset County Council boosts adult social care in final budget

Somerset County Council has approved its final budget to raise council tax by almost three per cent.

Agreed on Wednesday it provides a spending increase for children's services and adult social care.

Opposition councillors attacked the ruling Conservatives for a perceived lack of investment in rural areas.

It is the council's last budget before it and the four district councils are formally replaced by the new unitary Somerset Council in April 2023.

Council leader David Fothergill said it was "the most positive budget in my time as leader".

"While other councils are dipping in their reserves to fund everyday spending, this council is delivering a balanced budget and we are increasing our reserves," he added.

In the next 12 months the council will spend an additional £18m on adult social care - representing a rise of 13 per cent on the previous year, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Children's services will receive somewhere in the region of an extra £12m and the council intends to allocate £48m of capital spending towards new infrastructure projects, including £24m for improvements to the Somerset road network.

To fund these investments, council tax will rise by almost three per cent, of which one per cent is ring-fenced for adult social care - meaning the average band D property will pay an extra 78p per week.

Opposition councillors claimed the council had neglected to properly invest in rural communities since taking power in 2009.

Councillor Adam Dance said: "You put no investment in the rural communities, and you dare to sit here today and say you are investing.

"My residents have been let down and I hope there's a change in May."

BBC Points West Political Correspondent Paul Barltrop

In 2018 Somerset County Council seemed to be close to a financial cliff edge.

Now, four years on, it is about to be consigned to history - but not because the council failed.

Far from it; despite the gloomy predictions, savings and efficiencies were made, and the finances improved. And this year's budget brings no painful cuts.

But the leader, David Fothergill, became convinced a longer-term approach was needed, and set about changing Somerset's entire system of local government.

Despite opposition from district councils, he persuaded Whitehall that they and the county should be merged. A single, streamlined unitary authority will come into being at May's local elections.

That should make setting Somerset's future budgets considerably easier.

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