The leader of Somerset County Council has spoken candidly about the "unique challenges" facing Somerset over the next few years – and how he hopes to make it a better place to live and work.

It's been a little over 100 days since the Liberal Democrats formally took the reins at County Hall on May 20, following their emphatic win in the local elections on May 5.

Having booted out the Conservatives, who had held power since 2009, Bill Revans and his administration has already faced numerous challenges, with inflation and the cost of living crisis adding to existing pressures on children's services and adult social care.

Needing to tackle all of these problems while trying to implement a new unitary authority is no easy task – especially when Mr Revans, like many of his colleagues, did not support the One Somerset business case which has led us to this point.

In an exclusive chat with the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he lays out the scale of the problems his team faced, where tough decisions will need to be taken, and where he sees Somerset in five years' time…

The move towards a unitary – which he didn't want

The self-described "arthritic cricketer" is his usual unflappable, methodical self when we meet at the Shoreditch White café on Corporation Street, just a few hundred yards from his office in County Hall – and he's fully aware of the challenges facing him and his party over the next 12 months.

He said: "We've got to set up a new council and set its culture. We also have a vision for how we want Somerset to be – we want it to be greener, we want it to be fairer, we want it to be more prosperous and more caring.

"We're here to do a job – we're not here to sit in a building. We've taken control at the most unique time in local government, with the cost of the living crisis and significant problems around adult social care.

"We've got rising demand for our services, we're got the health services reorganising at the same time as us – it's an exciting environment, and at the same time we know it's a challenge."

With barely eight months to go until the new unitary take control on April 1, 2023, Mr Revans is having to achieve a difficult balance, ensuring his staff can achieve a smooth transition while still doing their day jobs and delivering local services.

He said: "Our staff have really stepped up to the mark to deliver for the people of Somerset.

"We will use agency staff as and where we need to. It's not something we would look to do long-term – we're not expecting to have any significant redundancies during this transition process."

One of the key planks of the unitary business case was the creation of local community networks (LCNs) – large committee-like structures which could bring more decision-making to a local level and prevent further centralisation at County Hall.

The precise number of LCNs or the territories they will cover have not yet been confirmed, with consultation planned in the autumn following pilots in Exmoor and Frome.

Mr Revans said: "We're consulting on the powers and responsibilities that they would have, along with the geographies.

"If we have more LCNs, they are likely to have fewer powers. There will be several proposals that will be come forward, for either ten, 17 or 18 LCNs.

"We believe that power should be devolved to communities wherever possible. We believe in local decision-making.

"We are delivering a business case with which I don't think any of the executive agreed – I supported the Stronger Somerset case [for two unitaries]. But we are working with the business case to see how we can bring power closer to the people within the cards the government has dealt us."

Tackling the cost of living

At the last full council meeting in July, the Lib Dems copped criticism after it refused to immediately implement plans by the Conservative opposition to tackle the cost of living crisis.

Instead, these proposals are currently being scrutinised by councillors and will come back before the executive in October – a move which Mr Revans has defended.

He said: "We're quite happy to look at opposition suggestions as to things that we can do – that doesn't mean we're delaying what we're doing.

"Our business is to support the most vulnerable people in our community – that's what we do every day of the week.

"We're backing the Somerset Community Foundation's campaign for people to donate their winter fuel allowance to those who need it.

"There are particular concerns around giving small amounts of grants to be distributed by local councillors – that may not be the most efficient way to get help to the people that need it most."

How do you solve a problem like… the council's finances?

Within two months of taking office, details of the scale of the council's financial problems began to emerge, with officers predicting in July that £44.5M in savings will need to be found.

With inflation running at its highest since the mid-1970s and demand for services rising, the situation presents a real headache for a council seeking to build new schools and deliver major infrastructure projects.

Mr Revans is keen to stress that very little of this situation is his or the Lib Dems' making, pointing out the national backdrop while acknowledging the unique challenges for Somerset – especially when it comes to recruitment.

He said: "There were structural problems with the finances of the councils, that's one of the imperatives of having to go down the unitary route.

"That being said, councils across the country – irrespective of political control – are caught up in this hugely difficult situation.

"The workforce pressures that we have are significant – our inability to recruit key members of staff are an absolutely huge difficulty, and putting those things right will take a lot longer than we have to deal with the immediate problems.

"We need to have a higher education offer in Somerset that meets the needs of Somerset. We export bright young people to other parts of the country, and because we don't have a university, we don't import people – that is one of the big problems with our social mobility."

The county council has been in dire financial straits before, with £28M of deeply unpopular cuts being approved in September 2018 amid rumours that the authority would join the likes of Northamptonshire and Croydon in declaring effective bankruptcy (known as a Section 114 notice).

Mr Revans is adamant that this is not a danger this time around, with "good reserves" that can be called on to ensure core services can be retained.

He's also philosophical about the recent upheaval at Westminster, once branding Whitehall's local government hub as the "Department for Levelling Up, Cream Cakes and Hamsters".

He said: "It's been difficult over the last few weeks and months, and we look forward to a relative normality of having dialogue with the new minister."

Meeting children's needs

Children's services in Somerset have been a sore point for several years, with Ofsted rating the council 'inadequate' in 2015 and the department still 'requiring improvement' when inspectors returned in 2018.

With former Wells MP Tessa Munt now heading up children's services, Mr Revans is confident the big financial pressures on the service can be addressed – especially the exorbitant cost of care placements outside of Somerset.

He said: "We've had another Ofsted inspection, and we're optimistic that they have seen the improvements that have been made.

"A lot of fundamental work around prevention needs to take place, particularly around children's mental health which is going to be an increasing issue post-pandemic.

"We are working with partners to increase the speed of delivering new homes for children within the county, with the support they need being closer to their families and their education."

The council pledged to deliver ten new children's homes in Somerset by 2026 – of which two are almost a done deal and several others in the pipeline.

"We need older people to live healthier lives"

Three years after the BBC's Panorama team was granted unprecedented access to the council's adult social care teams, the problems relating to funding and recruitment are still very much present – and in some cases, the situation is deteriorating.

"You would not normally expect in a summer to see queues of ambulances outside Musgrove Park Hospital", Mr Revans said. "If we have a difficult winter here, we will be in quite a serious position.

"The challenges have got worse. Officers, staff and volunteers in the sector have stepped up to the problems as best as they can, but the structural problems still remain.

"We still have difficulties with primary care, with our hospitals, with delayed transfer of care [bed-blocking], with our care sector. There are a number of issues behind that, and I don't think central government has provided anything like the solutions that we need to see."

Somerset has an ageing population as a result of people living longer and large numbers choosing to retire to the county – which creates challenges when it comes to providing care, especially in the more rural parts of the county.

To tackle the problem, Mr Revans believes community groups are key to preventing people from ending up in the social care system in the first place.

He said: "We need older people to live healthier lives, and we need them to live those lives within their communities.

"The LCNs will be absolutely crucial to make Somerset a sustainable place to live on a very local level.

"We also need to be able to recruit locally to give people support in the local community – and that's where the difficulties in our housing market are particularly prominent.

"I'm really proud that Somerset West and Taunton Council is at the moment building the first new council houses in west Somerset for a generation. We need younger people to take care of the older people, and if we don't have a housing system that allows young people to stay in west Somerset and fulfil those rules, then it's not sustainable.

"We need to be attaching pieces of elastic to our brightest and best, so that even if they do go away, they come back."

It's the economy, stupid

Somerset's creaking infrastructure was a huge topic during the local elections, with social media being awash with comments about roads going un-repaired, a lack of public transport, slow broadband speeds and communities' vulnerability to flooding.

These are all huge problems to address – and Mr Revans has seen the impact of these first-hand, having seen significant housing growth in his North Petherton division while fighting tooth and nail for new schools, better roads and new bus services.

But he admits that, given the current financial picture, the council will have to be selective with the major projects it funds for the next 12 to 18 months.

He said: "We are looking at all areas of council spending to find a way to make this new council sustainable.

"Those services that aren't statutory are the ones which have historically borne the brunt [of cuts]. However, it is also important that we recognise that unless we have effective public transport, and a transport infrastructure that can cope with the level of demand, we won't see the longer-term solutions to these problems.

"If we are going to see big investment into this county, we need a transport infrastructure that can cope with that.

"I struggle with the opposition's criticism of our historic borrowing, which was investment in our county's infrastructure. They saw that as being a problem – we saw that as being the opportunity and the solution.

"Now is not the best time to spend a huge amount of money on construction projects because of the eye-watering increase in construction costs. However, getting inward investment into Somerset from both the public and private sector is critical."

The new unitary authority will inherit a number of significant infrastructure projects from the four district councils at various stages of completion – such as the ongoing efforts to redevelop the Saxonvale site in Frome, or the multiple regeneration projects in Chard, Yeovil and Wincanton which South Somerset District Council is rushing to complete.

Understandably, Mr Revans is tight-lipped when it come to making commitments about which of these projects will eventually see the light of day – but he's not shy in admitting each proposal will be closely scrutinised to ensure taxpayers will get value for money.

He said: "We have to look at delivering the capital projects that we need in our communities very carefully in this budget round.

"We have to be mindful that we are delivering for all the people of Somerset, so there may well be difficult decisions to be made.

"With some of those projects, they do bring in funding from outside, and we lose that funding if we don't move forward with them."

Mr Revans is acutely aware of the magnitude of the challenge his council faces – but he also freely admits that it cannot solve all the problems on its own.

While he doesn't specifically quote or reference the famous slogan "it's the economy, stupid" – coined by James Carville for Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaign – he clearly acknowledges that little of his team's aspirations will be achieved without an economy which benefits the whole of Somerset.

He said: "Ultimately, a lot of these problems can be solved with a more prosperous economy. We can find solutions around prevention and improving our care system, but we also need to attract inward investment.

"With unitary, we can take a more holistic approach to planning our infrastructure, so we can recognise the need for schools, hospitals, doctors, dentists etc. around the developments that we see. We need to revitalise our town centres and encourage investment in them."

Looking to the future

The next local elections in Somerset won't be held until May 2027 – by which time at least one general election will have taken place.

When it comes to his aspirations for Somerset, Mr Revans is quite clear – for the entire south west to have a louder voice in Westminster and to bring more opportunity to the area.

He said: "I think it's absolutely essential that the voice of the West Country is heard much more prominently.

"I've been speaking to the leaders of our neighbouring councils about their vision for the West Country, with the aspiration that we can work together cross-party to be a more effective voice in Westminster and Whitehall.

"We have some very unique challenges in terms of how it will contribute to the UK over the next 20 years. I see it as being a place where people not only want to retire to, but with modern technology where people will want to relocate to work, because of the lifestyle we can offer and the amazing communities and landscapes we have.

"I think people's priorities are changing. They are recognising that earning the maximum amount of money that you can isn't the objective in life – that actually there is something more fundamental about lifestyle, being part of a community, the environment and the sense of place.

"I think the West Country has a huge amount to offer in that, and it's about making sure we make the best of that opportunity."