Somerset Council’s Liberal Democrat Executive has come under fire after the lead member for Transformation publicly admitted, “I think it’s fair to say that we don’t know how we will save that sum.”
The comment, made during this month’s Executive meeting, referred to the £190 million in savings the Council says it must find over the next five years to achieve financial sustainability. It came as the Executive approved its delayed “Inspiring Innovation” Transformation Plan — the strategy intended to steer the authority out of its ongoing financial emergency.
According to the Council’s own Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), the plan should have been agreed in June. Instead, it arrived a month late, cutting valuable time from the already tight timetable to deliver £101 million in savings in 2026/27 alone.
Conservative councillors said the admission revealed a lack of clarity and urgency at the heart of the Council’s financial response.
Councillor Sue Osborne, the Opposition spokesperson for Transformation, HR and Localities, said the plan failed to demonstrate how the required savings would actually be delivered. She told the Executive,
You commented on the plan for 24–25, but we didn’t deliver the savings that were expected to deliver that balanced budget for 25–26 or the full MTF period.
“So how are we now going to ensure… that you are going to deliver a balanced budget for 26–27? Is it realistic to expect this to be done, in effect, by a new provider?" She added "The new provider will be starting midway (Oct 2025) through the current 2025/26 financial year where a savings target of £45m has already been set with no guarantee that this will be achieved even with a new provider in place.”
The Transformation Plan itself openly acknowledges the uncertainty, stating: “We do not know exactly how we will save £190 million. But we do know… we can do it because of our brilliant workforce and amazing residents.”
Councillor Lucy Trimnell challenged the Executive on that point directly, questioning how it could properly evaluate bids from prospective transformation partners if there was no clear idea of what needed to be delivered. She said,
My concern is we don’t know how it’s going to be done. How do we know which of those transformation partner bids is the best bid if we don’t have an idea how it could work?
The transformation partner – a private consultancy expected to begin work in October – will be tasked with helping the Council identify new savings, support the delivery of key projects, and develop detailed business cases. Until then, much of the plan remains high-level and uncosted.
Leader of the Conservative Opposition, Councillor Diogo Rodrigues, also challenged whether the plan would meet the specific savings targets set out in the Council’s financial strategy.
“The MTFS savings target for 26–27 outlined the transformation programme as £70.9 million and business as usual £30.4 [million],” he said.
“So what I really want is some assurance… whether or not the lead member is confident that this particular plan… will deliver the £101 million savings required for 26–27.”
Officers did not confirm that the savings would be met, instead noting that further work was still underway and that the Council continued to await the arrival of its Strategic Transformation Partner who is not expected to start work until October.
Cllr Rodrigues said the Executive’s approach lacked urgency and clarity, despite the scale of the financial crisis,
There is no cast-iron assurance that the £101 million in savings required for 2026/27 will be met, and the Executive openly admits it still doesn’t know how it will deliver the £190 million overall savings.
He added, "We will await the detailed business cases that we’re told will come towards the end of the year, but 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."
