Crisis-hit Somerset Council fails to find new finance boss

BBC News

a day ago

A local authority which declared a "financial emergency" and said it risks going effectively bankrupt, has failed to find a new finance director.Somerset Council has now appointed an interim chief finance officer, the third in a year, at a cost of £7,000 a week.The role includes a statutory position, called a Section 151 Officer, which the council legally has to fill.A report about the recent external recruitment process said it was a "difficult role to fill on a substantive basis and unfortunately, despite a national search, the council was not successful in identifying a suitable candidate".
Somerset Council's last permanent finance director took redundancy in August 2024, with a £75,000 redundancy package plus £447,000 in employer's pension costs.He was replaced by an interim finance director, recruited through an external agency, from September 2024 until the end of April 2025.A council report put the estimated costs for that appointment at £212,425 plus VAT.An internal interim finance director was then put in place for two months, until the new external appointee is due to start in July. The new interim finance officer is expected to stay in the role until April 2026 at a cost of £270,000 - which is more than the budget allocated for that post for the current financial year.The council said the extra money, £120,000, will be found from assets the authority is selling off.A council report said a chief financial officer's role is to "ensure proper administration of the local authority's financial affairs". It said they must be "professionally qualified and experienced", but their employment status can "vary".A council spokesperson said there was a national shortage of "experienced, qualified candidates" and the interim appointment had some advantages " including ensuring independent scrutiny of our response to the ongoing financial emergency".