Low crime areas get more police cash than region

LEAFY counties with low crime rates like Surrey and Sussex are to be given bigger funding increases than West Midlands Police (WMP) next year.

The news was revealed after the Government published its funding settlement for 2023/24.

Police chiefs reacted angrily after learning the region’s force would get the fifth lowest funding increase.

That is despite being the second biggest in the country serving more than two million people and having one of the highest crime rates.

Labour Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Simon Foster said he was baffled by the fact places like Surrey and Sussex, with low crime and deprivation rates, could be given a bigger boost than his West Midlands

force. The Provisional Police Funding Settlement for 2023/24, published by the Home Office, shows WMP is in line for a 3.3% funding rise.

Forces covering areas with the highest crime rates, such as London’s Met, Greater Manchester and Merseyside are in line for similar funding increases as the West Midlands. Sussex will get an increase of 4.3% and Surrey 4.2%.

Wiltshire is set for a 4.3% increase, Dorset a 4.2% rise, while Devon and Cornwall is line for 4%.

These counties experience nowhere near the crime levels as the West Midlands, with the region’s force covering the second city Birmingham and two others in Wolverhampton and Coventry as part of its vast urban area.

Violent youth crime has rocketed in the West Midlands over the last few years and a wave of shooting and stabbings rocked the region during the summer.

PCC Mr Foster is proposing increasing the police precept by £15 a year for a Band D property and is seeking residents’ views.

In cash terms, WMP will get the second largest amount, reflecting its size, but Mr Foster insisted his force should have been given more, and prioritised over smaller forces, to help tackle the challenges it faces.

Mr Foster said: “It is deeply regrettable that the Government is determined to pursue its strategy of requiring the people of the West Midlands to pay more local council tax, for less local policing – by effectively mandating an increase in the council tax policing precept in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

“The harsh reality is that the Government has provided us with a stark choice. Increase the council tax police precept or face yet further cuts to policing, that would see us lose the equivalent of 260 frontline officers.”

He added: “On the Government’s own analysis, the West Midlands is once again being short changed.

“We will receive the fifth worst financial settlement of any force in the country.

The Home Office accepted the current funding model was “out of date and no longer accurately reflects demand on policing”. The way forces are funded is being reviewed “to ensure that it fairly and transparently distributes the circa £8.6bn of annual core grant funding to the 43 police forces in England and Wales.”