Somerset Council has admitted spending £33.6 million on temporary consultants and agency staff since 2023 - when they declared a financial emergency.
The figures were revealed following questioning by Councillor Dawn Denton, Conservative Opposition Lead Member for Finance, who asked for a breakdown of consultant and agency costs since May 2022, when the Lib Dem administration took control. The Council confirmed spend via its Matrix supplier reached:
- £12.5m in 2023/24
- £14.2m in 2024/25
- £6.8m so far in 2025/26
(The total excludes any non-Matrix agency or consultancy costs, meaning the true figure is higher.)
This comes in the same period that Somerset Council has cut 555 permanent posts, including almost 300 redundancies, in a restructuring exercise to save £34m.
On top of this, the Council has now agreed to pay outside consultants up to £20m over the next five years to identify savings needed to avoid bankruptcy - to fill a budget black hole of £101m in 2026/27, rising to £190m by 2029/30.
Cllr Dawn Denton said, “Somerset Council is cutting services for our residents, increasing council tax and yet writing blank cheques to consultants. That is not responsible leadership, does not build trust or balance the books. Somerset deserves leadership that invests in its own people, not costly sticking-plaster solutions.”
The Conservative Opposition is demanding full transparency on all consultancy and agency spending, and for the Council to ensure that permanent staff, not costly consultants, are at the heart of service delivery.
