Ken Maddock is a pragmatist. The leader of the Conservative-led Somerset County Council moved swiftly last autumn to rubber-stamp £43m of cuts to Somerset’s budget two months before the government had released any figures, prompting criticism that he was perhaps being too hasty.

But Somerset has suffered in the recession and he believes that making cuts fast and getting it over with quickly will create the right conditions sooner for business in the county to flourish. He is also pinning his hopes on the construction of a third nuclear reactor at Hinkley, which would create thousands of jobs.