As Somerset Council battles with its finances, we ask: what happens next?
Somerset Council's finances are imploding and the blame game has already started. This week Somerset Confidential® looks at the consequences of filling a s114 notice.
Somerset Confidential® special SC 30
Dear readers
Today’s Somerset Confidential® is for our paying subscribers. We hope you find it interesting. If you’d like to get more material like this you can subscribe for it here:
At Somerset Confidential®, we see our work as a public service – and that means you get a lot of our journalism free.
We would love to have your support to help us do more. More pieces like today’s story which needs more in depth research.
If you feel able to help us, we’ve set a paid subscription rate at £30 per annum. That’s 58p per edition, or 25% of the price of a cup of tea at Starbucks. And for that we’ll throw in some additional benefits.
· Read two extra articles a month – and you know we write ‘em good and write em long! (That’s value for money right there.)
· Get access to our back catalogue – you can search every shenanigan we report on. (Yes there have been a few of those!).
· Comment – have your say! – on anything we write.
· And experience the satisfaction of supporting the most innovative, public-service journalism project in Somerset.
Think of it like this. Support us – and support a better governed Somerset. You can join and support us here….
Thank you
Andrew Lee - editor
As Somerset Council battles with its finances, we ask: what happens next?
The row over what happened to Somerset’s finances is intensifying. In case you haven’t been following the story, and it is not a happy one, this is where we are. The council is forecast to overspend by £30m this year and by £80m next. It has just £50m in reserves.
Unless a lot of rabbits are pulled out of the hat, it will be forced to declare itself bankrupt. For a council that means filing something called a s114 notice.
Although you might not think so from all the talk around the subject, it is not the council’s decision to make.
Only one person can file a s114 notice. It is the exclusive “privilege” of the council’s finance officer, known as a s151 officer. In the case of Somerset Council, the heavy burden of responsibility falls on Jason Vaughan. Mr Vaughan can file the notice even if the elected councillors disagree.
In practise councils tend to listen to their most senior finance officer. And in this case the auditors are on board too. And what everyone is saying is that the s114 notice could be filed as early as February 2024.
Blame game
Needless to say the political parties on the council are all blaming each other for the fiasco. The LibDems Leader Bill Revans blames the war in Ukraine, Brexit, the Liz Truss Budget fiasco and then went on to say: “These have all changed the financial landscape of this country, especially Somerset. This position in Somerset is especially difficult because we have both a low rate of Council Tax and a low Council Tax base compared with other similar Councils across rural areas of the country. The previous Conservative administration of Somerset County Council took the ideological position to freeze council tax for six years between 2010 and 2016. This has stripped more than £200 million pounds from the council budget since, and continues to have an effect every year. This is a hugely detrimental factor in Somerset’s situation.”
For the Conservatives David Fothergill says “It is deeply frustrating that the new administration has squandered the strong financial legacy that was handed to them after the election. A lack of any sense of urgency has led to a failure to maintain focus, a failure to keep key personnel in post and a failure to keep momentum towards financial sustainability. As a result, many Unitary savings which were forecast and achievable have sadly not been realised.”