The merger will create a combined business with fee income of £10.9m and will be headed up by Richard Thomas, who is currently chairman of Thomas Westcott, based out of the Exeter office.

The merged firm will have 24 partners and 190 staff across 18 offices in Devon and Somerset, and will operate as Butterworth Jones and Thomas Westcott chartered accountants. There will be no redundancies or office closures as a result of the merger.

Devon-based Thomas Westcott has 16 partners and around 150 staff, and reported an annual fee income of £8.3m in 2014. The firm is ranked 66th in the Accountancy Top 75 firms survey. It is an established practice with offices across the county providing services including accountancy, audit, business recovery, corporate finance, financial planning and tax advice.

Somerset-based Butterworth Jones has five offices in Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea, Langport, Somerton and Weston-super-Mare, and currently has five partners, two consultants, two associates, and approximately 60 staff.

Richard Thomas, chairman of Thomas Westcott, said: ‘Butterworth Jones is a well-established and successful accountancy firm and we believe the two firms' highly-complementary service offerings will significantly strengthen our overall market position in the south west and beyond.’

John Parker, managing partner of Butterworth Jones, said: ‘A key advantage of this merger will be our ability to broaden the portfolio of services available to clients.’

Sign up to our newsletter

If you would like to receive regular news alerts about breaking news and developments in tax, accounting and audit, sign up to receive our free newsletter here