Burnham-On-Sea MP Ashley Fox has joined five other Somerset MPs in urging the government to step in with extra funding to help Somerset Council avoid what could be an 11% rise in council tax from April this year.
Somerset Council is due to set its annual budget on February 25th and is currently facing a £73m shortfall, driven by rising demand for services and long‑term financial pressures.
The authority has warned that, without additional support, council tax may need to rise by up to 10.99% in 2026/27 to bring Somerset in line with neighbouring West Country councils.
On Tuesday (January 13th), six Somerset MPs met local government minister Alison McGovern in Westminster to press the case for more core funding. Alongside Ashley Fox were Liberal Democrat MPs Gideon Amos, Adam Dance, Sarah Dyke, Rachel Gilmour and Anna Sabine.
Speaking to Burnham-On-Sea.com after the meeting, Ashley Fox said his priority is securing the best possible outcome for local residents, but he stressed that Somerset Council’s own financial management cannot be overlooked.
“It is my job to get the best financial settlement for my constituents, so I was happy to meet with the minister and argue with Liberal Democrat MPs that Somerset deserves a better deal,” he said. “But I also have to tell you that Somerset does not manage our money well.”
He said the meeting allowed MPs to highlight the unique pressures facing Somerset, including the higher cost of delivering services in rural areas. However, he added that funding alone does not explain the council’s financial difficulties.
Ashley pointed to repeated warnings from independent auditors about weak financial controls, late budgets, and poor oversight of major projects such as the Glastonbury Life Factory. He also criticised the council’s heavy reliance on agency staff and consultants, and property decisions that he says have cost taxpayers millions.
He warned that residents are now being asked to contemplate an 11% council tax rise — something he believes many households simply cannot absorb, especially when confidence in the council’s financial leadership is low. “There’s an awful lot of bad administration for which the Liberal Democrats are responsible,” he said.
Responding to comments from fellow MP Anna Sabine about previous council tax freezes, Ashley Fox said it was important to be accurate. He argued that earlier Conservative administrations froze council tax while still balancing the books — something he says auditors have since criticised the current leadership for failing to do.
“So yes, of course I’ll go to the government and say Somerset needs a better deal,” he added. “But at the same time I’m going to turn to those councillors running the council and say you really should stop wasting our money and do a better job.”
The five Lib Dem MPs issued a joint statement of their own, laying out the scale of the challenge facing the council.
They said: “The provisional financial settlement for Somerset is a Labour government bombshell, in which they look set to force an 11 per cent council tax increase on to Somerset residents. We are fighting against this kind of unaffordable increase.”
“This proposal from the government has led to council tax payers feeling even more anxious in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.”
“They should not be made to suffer further after what auditors have said were the ‘poor decisions’ of the previous Conservative-led administration and their woeful mismanagement of Somerset County Council’s finances.”
The MPs were “crystal clear” to the minister that forcing such an increase on Somerset would be “far too much for residents to be expected to pay”, and called for the government to refine its fair funding formula to take accounts of the needs of rural areas.
They said: “We highlighted that, as the fifth biggest council by land area in the country, Somerset suffers massively from the removal of ‘remoteness uplift’, which recognised the additional costs of providing services in sparsely populated areas. We also called for the £11m lost due to business rates reform to be refunded, and highlighted the reduced public health budget, leading to greater strain on care provision.”
“In a constructive meeting, the minister listened carefully and invited us to submit more information including on the costs of health and care – but we remain concerned that Labour does not properly understand the strain rural communities are under.”
“The government must now acknowledge the impact their changes are having on Somerset and the pressures of delivering vital front-line services across our predominantly rural county.”
“We will be taking up the offer of a further meeting with officials as soon as possible, and will continue to press home the need for higher year-on-year funding from central government for Somerset. It should not be for council taxpayers in Somerset to bail out a failing government care funding system.”
The council currently spends around two-thirds of its budget on providing care for vulnerable children and adults – leaving a reducing portion available for highway maintenance, planning, bin collections and other vital local services.
The government commissioned Baroness Casey to lay out plans for the future funding of adult social care – but the first phase of her report is not expected until later this year, with the final recommendations not being implemented until 2028.
The MPs said the government had “failed to fund” additional care costs which were borne by local authorities, and that the council could not stay afloat through further job cuts or its ongoing transformation programme.
They added: “The council has already made deep cuts with over 700 jobs going this year. It’s now between a rock and a hard place – it is being asked to deliver the increased care on reduced funding. As MPs we will continue pushing hard for central government to step up with the additional support our county needs.”
“We are campaigning on behalf of local taxpayers to increase Somerset’s funding settlement to cover services central government requires the council to deliver on its behalf.”
