SOMERSET Council will be relying on laying off its own staff in order to set a balanced budget for the coming year.

The council declared a financial emergency in November 2023 and was only able to set a balanced budget in February by agreeing to significant savings, job cuts and the sale of both commercial investments and surplus land and property.

As part of its budget proposals for 2025/26, the council has identified nearly £44m of new savings. But the majority of these new savings will come from slimming down its workforce, with the ongoing consultation exercise expected to conclude before Christmas and up to 450 posts being at risk.

The council is currently projecting a budget gap of £97,796,000 for 2025/26, based on current demand for services, inflation, interest rates and a range of other factors.

To help close this gap, new savings have been identified to the tune of £43.950,000.

The largest single saving of £34m will come from the council’s “workforce reduction programme”, with compulsory redundancies following voluntary redundancies earlier in the year.

A spokesman said: “The workforce reduction programme is designed as an enabler for the wider transformation and innovation programme.

“This will be achieved through a smaller, leaner organisation and delivered through the voluntary redundancy scheme offered earlier this year and the whole council restructuring programme, which is due to be implemented by April 1, 2025.

“Ongoing staffing budgets will be managed through ongoing governance around recruitment and use of agency staff to maintain strong establishment controls.”

The remaining budget gap will be partially plugged by an increase in council tax, with any remainder needing to be filled either by using reserves or selling off additional assets.

Deputy leader Liz Leyshon said a more accurate picture would become available once the government confirmed the funding settlement shortly Christmas.

Councillor Sue Osborne said the council’s costs could rise sharply if the government did not provide more support for care providers in the face of the planned national insurance rise in April 2025.

The final budget expected to be set by the full council on February 19, 2025.