Somerset MPs have joined forced to demand additional central government funding for local services, in a bid to avoid an 11 per cent rise in council tax.

Somerset Council will set its annual budget on February 25, which is expected to include a significant increase in council tax bills as it attempts to plug a £73m budget gap driven by rising demand for local services.

The council's executive committee stated on January 7 that it had submitted "illustrative figures" to the government of potential council tax rises of up to 10.99 per cent for 2026/27 – an increase which would bring Somerset up to parity with its West Country neighbours.

Six of Somerset's seven MPs met with local government minister Alison McGovern on Tuesday (January 13) to urge the government to provide additional core funding to prevent such an extravagant increase.

Five of Somerset's Liberal Democrat MPs met with Mrs McGovern (the Labour MP for Birkenhead) at her parliamentary office in Westminster – Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington), Adam Dance (Yeovil), Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton), Rachel Gilmour (Tiverton and Minehead) and Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset).

Bridgwater's Conservative MP Sir Ashley Fox was also present at the meeting, while Wells and Mendip Hills MP Tessa Munt was unable to attend.

All six Lib Dem MPs had previously written to Mrs McGovern following the local government funding settlement in December 2025, describing it as "profoundly disappointing".

Following the meeting, the five Lib Dem MPs present issued a joint statement laying out the scale of the challenge facing the council in the coming weeks and months.

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."

If an 11 per cent increase in council tax were allowed by the government, this would be the second consecutive year in which the council had been allowed an increase above the 4.99 per cent referendum limit, following last year's increase of 7.49 per cent.

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."

The council's detailed budget proposals will be published before the end of January, with the full council meeting in Bridgwater to approve the proposals on February 25.