WE’VE made it in just about one piece to the end of a tumultuous and tempestuous 12 months.

At a national level, we’ve had Labour winning a landslide at the general election (which feels so long ago), the Post Office Horizon scandal, riots across the country and farmers protesting over inheritance tax, to name but a few.

And that’s before you factor in the international picture, with the continuing war in Ukraine, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and Donald Trump winning a second term in the White House – again, by no means an exhaustive list.

Somerset is often regarded as a sleepy backwater when it comes to politics and national news; like much of the West Country, it rarely makes the national headlines unless it involves flooding, farming or the Glastonbury Festival.

But even if you don’t care about these three things, the next 12 months will be critical for Somerset’s future as long-term projects come to fruition and Somerset Council struggles to meet the new government’s demands for new housing and infrastructure.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect from the next 12 months in England’s greatest county (sorry Devon).

The big financial question

The first and biggest question for 2025 is this: will Somerset Council be able to avoid effective bankruptcy?

The unitary authority is less than two years old, and it only managed to balance its budget in 2024 by committing to laying off large numbers of staff, selling off land and buildings, and shifting the delivery of many services onto town and parish councils.

The council’s transformation programme (which will see hundreds of staff leave) will reach its culmination in April, while the sale of commercial investments and ‘non-operational assets’ (such as the High Street car park in Taunton or the Cornhill building in Bridgwater) will continue over the course of the year, having reached around £50m by Christmas.

With the bulk of the council’s revenue budget needing to be spent on vulnerable children and adults, there is less money every year to fund other vital public services, whether it’s fixing potholes, collecting our bins or looking after our green spaces and public toilets.

Town and parish councils have stepped up to the plate, with several devolution deals being agreed, but there is a limit to how much they can reasonably deliver with their limited manpower and without sending other parts of people’s council tax bills through the roof.

Somerset Council is stuck between a rock and a hard place, being unable to raise council tax beyond a certain level without an expensive referendum and being unwilling to burden its residents further as the cost of living crisis continues.

If the council cannot set a balanced budget, it will have to issue a Section 114 notice – effectively declaring bankruptcy and calling in commissioners from central government.

While it may sound tempting for those who question some of the council’s recent spending decisions, the result would be removing residents further from the democratic process, with commissioners ordering officers to sell off land and lay off staff on a whim – and charging Somerset taxpayers for their time.

The council will do everything it can to avoid this position before it sets its annual budget in mid-February – but without reforms to council tax or the funding of adult social care, even their hardest work may just be delaying the inevitable.

Racing to regenerate

While the council struggles to control its day-to-day spending, it will also be racing to move forward with numerous regeneration projects which are funded by central government grants.

Many of these grants (which form part of the council’s wider capital programme) can only be spent on very specific projects, and if the money is not used by a certain date it will have to be returned to Whitehall.

In Taunton, it’s a race against time to finish the boulevard running through the Firepool brownfield site and to deliver a new pedestrian and cycling bridge over the River Tone to link the site to Coal Orchard and the Brewhouse Theatre.

Both projects are funded by the government’s future high street fund, with all contracts having to be in place by March 31 – meaning there’s very little room for manoeuvre.

The same pressures are present in Yeovil, where the future high streets fund is bankrolling the demolition of the Glovers Walk shopping centre and the delivery of several town centre housing schemes.

Separate funding is also delivering three ‘missing links’ within the town’s active travel network, with the new amphitheatre at The Triangle finally due to open in early-January and work on the new visitors’ centre at nearby Ham Hill (funded by the National Lottery) getting under way around the same time.

We could also finally see progress with the pared-back regeneration of the Octagon Theatre, with a revised business case going to the government in the spring.

Across the way in Glastonbury, progress is expected to be made on numerous projects within the Glastonbury town deal, with all associated funds needing to be spent by March 31, 2026.

These include the regeneration of the Baily’s Building, ongoing improvements to the Red Brick Building (both in the Beckery area), the completion of the regenerative farming centre on Porchestall Drove and improving the visitor experience at Bride’s Mound.

Perhaps most crucially, given the town’s housing crisis, we’ll find out in the new year where the new provision for ‘non-bricks and mortar’ residents will be provided, after the original site was scrapped due to flooding.

But perhaps no settlement in Somerset will have to handle as much disruption in 2025 as Bridgwater, with numerous different pots of government money flowing through the town.

The Bridgwater town deal (which has the same spending deadline as Glastonbury) is already funding work to deliver the Celebration Mile through the town centre, which will last until the autumn (with Eastover closing for six months from January 2).

In the new year, other elements of the town deal programme will take shape – including the revamping of the town’s arts centre, the regeneration of the Northgate Docks and improving facilities for the iconic Bridgwater Carnival.

On top of this, two separate grants from the levelling up fund are in play – one for improvements to the ‘Bridgwater northern corridor’, the other to deliver a health and social academy at the former community hospital on Salmon Parade.

The first grant is being predominantly spent on improving the Dunball roundabout, which is being coordinated around the delivery of the new ‘gigafactory’ on the other side of the M5 – with work expected to finish in November 2025.

The timeline for the health and social care academy is harder to pin down, since planning permission has not yet been secured – though the satellite site in Minehead (within the town’s new police station) will be operational by the spring.

On top of all this, construction work will be ramping up on the Bridgwater tidal barrier after the Treasury finally signed off on the project (predominantly being funded by the Environment Agency).

While all of this investment is welcome across Somerset, the council’s increasingly limited manpower and resources may mean some of these schemes get delayed. There are a lot of plates to keep spinning, and if one falls it could be catastrophic to residents and businesses.

Housing, housing everywhere?

Somerset has struggled in recent years to deliver new housing – in no small part due to the phosphates crisis which is holding up 12,000 homes.

The need to secure additional mitigation to prevent damage to the Levels and Moors has slowed developers town and drawn the viability of new estates into question, even as central government funding has come forward to ease the problem.

The Supreme Court will sit in mid-February to make a final ruling on the Jurston Fields case in Wellington, which could set a huge precedent for other housing developments across the county and the UK as a whole.

The council has already won previous legal challenges brought against it by C. G. Fry – but a further victory in February may prove pyrrhic, considering both the short-term legal costs and the long-term implications for delivering low-cost homes.

On top of this legal battle, the council faces numerous public inquiries by the Planning Inspectorate into the fate of major developments across the county.

Three inquiries are currently confirmed for the early part of the year – one into 150 homes in Ruishton (which will begin on January 14), one into 180 homes in Midsomer Norton (starting on February 4), and one into 315 homes in Rockwell Green (commencing on March 10).

Others may follow in the coming months if the council refuses other major developments, given that it does not currently have a five-year land supply – and the rising housebuilding targets from central government.

By the late-spring, we will know the fate of two key sites in Frome – the Saxonvale site (with the council’s executive committee meeting to decide its fate in January 23), and the Selwood Garden Community (which is expected to be formally refused in early-February following an indicative vote in December).

Decisions will also be taken around this time on phase two of the Monkton Heathfield urban extension in Taunton (comprising 1,450 new homes) and the eastern part of the Staplegrove urban extension in the same town (915 homes).

Traffic jams galore

2024 hasn’t been a rosy year for Somerset motorists – and 2025 isn’t looking like it will get any easier.

On top of the Eastover closure to deliver the Celebration Mile, and the upgrades to the Dunball roundabout, numerous other major roadworks schemes will take place in 2025 – some of which have been years in the making.

On January 6, nine months of roadworks will begin in Chard, with Wessex Water and Wales & West Utilities making numerous improvements to the Furzehill and Glynswood area of the town – resulting in extensive closures and diversions.

In Taunton, work to upgrade the Hurdle Way junction in the town centre will resume in early-January after a break over the Christmas period, with temporary traffic lights being in place until early-April.

In Wellington, work could finally start on upgrading the Chelston link road (a.k.a. the ‘concrete carriageway’) in the spring – nearly five years after the Department for Transport first provided funding for the project.

Wellington residents will also hopefully find out by this time whether their new £15m railway station will go ahead, after the government launched a review of major transport projects in late-July.

Over in Street, two crucial junctions on the A39 Westway will be upgraded from June – which could make shopping at Clarks Village during the summer a little more challenging.

And in Frome, the ongoing safer school streets trial (which is funded by Sustrans) is expected to conclude in October – though it could be extended if it proves popular with pupils and parents.

Any other business?

In addition to these big ticket items, there are a plethora of other decisions or consultations which will take place in 2025 which will shape the county’s future.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) will hold its consultation between June and August on the new local election boundaries in Somerset, which will see the number of councillor drop from 110 to 96.

Discussions will also continue on the prospect of devolution, with the prospect of a new ‘Heart of Wessex’ authority bringing together Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire for many policy decisions – though all three councils will still exist and have decision-making powers.

On a lighter note, November will see the Luke Jerram art installation ‘Gaia’ coming to Bridgwater, following the (unfortunately short-lived) success of the ‘Fallen Moon’ installation at the docks back in 2024.

We may not have local elections in Somerset in 2025, but it’s hardly going to be a boring year.