Major layoffs at Somerset Council will hurt council services and do not mean it can avoid going bust, trade unions have warned.

The council is laying off more than 550 people as part of its "transformation" programme to bring down its spending, as it faces a crisis where the demand for and cost of adult and children's social care services increases faster than council funding. The council raised council tax by 7.5% and is selling off its assets to plug its budget gap for the next financial year, but spending is still expected to outstrip income by £101m again the year after.

Protesting outside Somerset County Cricket Club where the council met to agree its budget on March 5, Unison branch secretary Micheál Duffy told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The budget is balanced for this year — but it's reliant on the capitalisation of assets. But that's not sustainable going forward. Our concern is that will end up in the same position with more job cuts."

Addressing the meeting, Unison's Neil Guild said: "Council staff, who are residents and voters themselves, have little confidence in councillors to grapple with the challenges facing Somerset. Staff morale is at an all time low and many staff regularly express a wish to leave."

He told councillors: "The current set of cuts and job losses will lead to reduced services for residents and still do not guarantee that Somerset will avoid a section 114 notice in the future."

Theo Butt Philip (Wells, Liberal Democrat), the council's cabinet member for transformation, human resources, and localities, insisted that the council's transformation programme needed to balance costs long term, and said it had a "robust people strategy." He said: "We have taken a number of decisions locally to protect non-statutory services but the system is clearly broken on a national level."

But outside, protestors were concerned the impact of the cuts was not being considered. Helen Eccles said: "In our negotiations its clear, in their focus on balancing the books they are not really looking at the impact of those decisions."

Colin Nash, a social worker in the council's mental health services and a Unison activist, said: "Directors of departments have said "I know we have got to cut this number of hundreds of thousands of pounds and we are going to work out what staff we need after the event.""

Mr Butt Philip told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The impact of all of the staffing reductions have been properly looked at. We have assessed what mitigations are needed and we are putting this in place."

Nigel Behan, Unite representative, said he did not have confidence in the council. He said: "They are going to be in the same hole this time again next year."

The council predicts it will face a £101m black hole in 2026/27 — rising to £190m by 2029/30. Leader of the Conservative opposition on the council, Mandy Chilcott (Minehead) said: "The black hole seems to get ever deeper and darker."

Liz Leyshon (Street, Liberal Democrat), the council's cabinet member for resources, said: "The council has delivered very significant savings since April 2023 and as part of our transformational activity, we will need to continue to do so until a new sustainable local government finance settlement is implemented nationally."

Council leader Bill Revans (North Petherton, Liberal Democrat) warned that if the council could not balance its budget, it would be forced to issue a section 114 notice which would see government commissioners take over its finances. He told councillors: "It's our democratic responsibility to run this council and it's us who were elected to do that. This is not a situation of our making or our choosing but it is our responsibility to resolve it."

Mr Revans described Somerset's exceptional council tax increase agreed with the government as "above the cap by a modest two-and-a-half percent," warning that if Somerset ended up in the hands of government commissioners, they would raise council tax by double digits. He added that council tax bills in Somerset would remain lower than in Wiltshire, Dorset or Cornwall. The council tax increase means people living in a typical band D property will pay an additional £129 a year, or £2.49 a week.

Councillors voted 59-34 in favour of passing the budget, with two abstentions — despite warnings that voting down the budget would force the council to issue a section 114 notice, as no alternative budgets had been proposed. But opposition councillors said they feared voting in support of the budget would be seen as supporting the plans to introduce parking charges, a decision which had been taken on Monday March 3 by the council executive.

Mr Revans said: "It is clear the funding model is broken and I welcome the government's commitment for reform to funding in key areas of pressure like social care and special educational needs and disabilities. The situation for local government remains critical and we need action urgently, or councils like Somerset will simply run out of money."