Five things due to happen in Somerset in 2025

As 2025 gets underway, we thought we would run you through five of the biggest stories that will happen this year for Somerset.

From a new council to long awaited building works, the county will continue to evolve.

A newly restructured Somerset Council will go live in April following a year of measures to change the way services are run in a bid to save the local authority going bankrupt.

In January the local authority will also confirm how many staff will be made redundant following a 45 day consultation.

The figure is anticipated to be up to 450 employees.

Restructuring is one of many steps taken over the past year to reduce the councils projected budget overspend, which stands at almost £54m in the next financial year.

Others measures have included selling off land and buildings, cutting services or shifting the delivery of non statutory services onto town and parish councils.

Councillor Bill Revans, the Liberal Democrat leader of the council, said it has "had to consider many difficult and heart-breaking decisions" to avoid going bust.

"But we are also a listening council, and last year we took on board feedback from our budget consultation to remove some proposals and protect others by working in partnership with our fantastic city, town and parish councils," he said.

The big question in 2025 is will Somerset Council continue to avoid effective bankruptcy?

It has secured an extra £32m from the government to run the local authority in the year ahead.

The council's deputy leader Liz Leyshon said it was still not enough to fill the gap.

The council has now formally written to the new labour government to ask for permission to raise council tax above the five per cent cap.

The local authority said this will help raise revenue and bring council tax in Somerset in line with the amount neighbouring authorities ask their residents to pay.

The council will also find out from the government whether it is allowed to extend what is called its Capitalisation Direction.

This allows it to use money from the sale of assets or borrowing to fund day-to-day services and is partly how the local authority has balanced the books over the past year.

With all this change at Somerset Council, many residents will be wondering what, if any, impact this will have on the services they rely on in the year ahead.

The council will set its budget in mid-February for the following year, but without government led reforms of the way councils or adult social care is funded, there is unlikely to be a dramatic change in the council's financial position.

Expect to see lots of progress on the £4bn gigafactory being built by Agratas near Bridgwater this year.

Piling works will be completed in the new year and then the steel frame for Building One will start to go up on the western edge of the site.

Somerset Council recently gave planning consent for phase one of the work which is subject to a local development order.

An Agratas spokesperson said: "People can look out for the steel frame going up, which will make it really start to look like the battery manufacturing facility they've been seeing in the designs, and more jobs gradually being created throughout the year."

Roadworks around the project will be in full swing too.

At its peak, the project is expected to involve around 2,000 construction workers, which will include local firms and suppliers.

The car battery factory - which is tipped to be the largest in the UK - will create around 4,000 jobs when it opens in early 2027.

The facility is anticipated to provide up to 40 per cent of all electric vehicle batteries for the UK domestic market.

This year the labour government is due to announce whether it will still go ahead with two big building projects.

In the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves paused work on the rebuild of Musgrove Park Hospital and the reopening of Wellington Train Station.

The Chancellor put Boris Johnson's entire hospital rebuilding programme on ice so it could be reviewed.

On the same day, Ms Reeves scrapped the Restoring Your Railway fund which included work to reopen Wellington train station.

She said she was forced to do so to tackle a projected £22bn overspend the Labour Party had inherited from the Conservatives - a claim they contest.

Gideon Amos, the MP for Taunton and Wellington, recently told the Commons that the new station would have the best cost-benefit ratio of any railway station reopening project in the country.

He said: "On that ground alone, the project should qualify for funding, and it would bring £3.3m of benefit to the local economy."

Mr Amos also highlighted the project's advanced planning stages, how it will unlock thousands of homes, and the third-party funding secured for infrastructure like roads and car parks.

Meanwhile Musgrove Park Hospital said it is hopeful its hospital rebuild will go ahead.

The director of midwifery at NHS Somerset, Sally Bryant said: "We are making do with a building that's essentially not fit for purpose."

The Department of Health and Social Care said it will provide an update on Musgrove Park Hospital "as soon as possible".

A decision on the future of Wellington Station is expected in the spring.

Frome residents will find out in the new year whether locally-driven plans to regenerate the town centre will be taken forward by Somerset Council.

The Saxonvale site was the subject of two competing proposals for its regeneration – one from the Bristol-based Acorn Property Group, the other from the locally based social enterprise, Mayday Saxonvale.

Following a six-hour meeting last July, Somerset Council's executive committee announced it would be selling the site to Acorn – only for Acorn to drop out 24 hours later.

Mayday Saxonvale announced in early August that it had opened talks with the council, stating that it was in a position to begin work on delivering the new development very soon.

Following "positive" discussions between the two parties, Somerset Council has confirmed its executive will meet in Frome on 23 January to make a final decision on the proposals.

The Mayday Saxonvale bid includes 263 homes, of which at least 30 per cent will be affordable, at least 10,000sq m of commercial and community space, a riverside park, a hotel and spa, a lido swimming pool and nearly £828,000 for improving local schools.

Mayday Saxonvale director, Paul Oster, said: "We are excited to commence development in Saxonvale and engage the community with this long-standing opportunity for our town."

If Mr Oster's team is given the green light from the council, he said he plans to submit a more detailed planning application in 2025, and begin building work in early 2026.

A disused shopping centre is set to be demolished early in the new year.

Glover's Walk in Yeovil was bought by Somerset Council in 2024.

It is the final phase of the £24m Yeovil Refresh regeneration project, which began in 2019.

Internal work began at the end of last year, including disconnecting utilities and removing hazardous materials like asbestos from the vacant buildings.

The more visibly dramatic demolition of the 1960s buildings will take place in the coming weeks.

Government funding worth £4.8m helped the council secure the site and the deadline for spending the funding is 31 March 2025, so the demolition needs to happen before then.

Somerset Council is also asking residents and businesses for ideas on how the site should be used in the short-term and long-term.

It is likely to have a temporary use while longer-term options are explored, including new shops and affordable housing for key workers.

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