Somerset Council sold off £90m of assets last year – with plans to raise a £35m from further sales in the current financial year.

The council has been in a state of financial emergency since November 2023, struggling to balance its books in light of rising demand for children's services and adult social care.

In addition to raising council tax and laying off hundreds of members of staff as part of its ongoing transformation programme, the council has been selling off both its commercial investments and a range of 'non-operational assets', with the proceeds being used to fund front-line services.

The council has now confirmed that it generated more than £90m from the sale of these assets in the last financial year – with further sales already under way as the bid to balance the books rolls on.

The vast majority of the council's commercial investments were inherited from the four district councils upon their abolition in April 2023 – investments which were purchased using government loans in the preceding years.

The investments were intended to provide income to the council in the form of rent, to make up for the cuts in grant funding from central government since 2010.

Robert Orrett, the council's head of commercial investment service, provided an update on these investments when the council's property and investments executive sub-committee met in Taunton on Monday morning (July 14).

The annual rental income which the council receives from its investments is now just under £10m – which has dropped by ten per cent following a number of recent sales.

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These include Trafalgar House on the Galmington Trading Estate in Taunton, a commercial unit in Barnwood in Gloucester, the Reflex Labels factory in Ossett, West Yorkshire.

Following the partial vacation of King William House in Bristol (another similar investment), nearly 13 per cent of the council's available commercial units are vacant (known technically as voids).

Mr Orrett said: "In general, we bring forward properties for sale which are fully let.

"We are getting more and more concentration of properties which have management challenges on them.

"We have always targeted higher yielding investments and mostly that was achieved by securing relatively short-term rents."

In total, the council sold off £90,810,000 of investments in the 2024/25 financial year – and aspires to sell a further £35,000,000 by the end of March 2026.

To date, £7,788,500 of sales has been completed since April 2025, with marketing being undertaken on a further £10,600,000 of property.

Councillor Sarah Wakefield, portfolio holder for adults services, housing and homelessness, asked: "You said that most of our tenants are paying quarterly.

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"It was my experience that when they get into a bit of difficult, they start paying monthly – do we have any experience of that?"

Mr Orrett responded: "We have some smaller tenants whom we nurture, because we badly don't want to be forcing any tenants out of business."