Hammond’s £100m boost for policing

PHILIP Hammond will today announce a major funding boost to combat knife crime.

The Chancellor is set to offer an immediate £100million for police forces in his Spring Statement to tackle rising levels of violence on Britain’s streets. The sum could fund more than 3,000 officers’ salaries for a year.

It follows a major Whitehall row between the Home Office and Treasury, and represents a major victory for Home Secretary Sajid Javid. Last week Mr Hammond urged forces to divert existing resources from lower-priority crime instead of demanding more. Mr Javid publicly backed senior officers who said they needed more money to pay for overtime.

Sources said about two thirds of the cash would be for more street policing, while the rest would fund specialist Violence Reduction Units.

Lord Hogan-Howe, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner, has called for an extra 20,000 officers across the country and told ministers to ‘get a grip on the crisis’.