Extra police cash won’t make up for years of cuts
PCCS GIVEN SCOPE TO PUT UP COUNCIL TAX PRECEPT BY £24 A YEAR
CASH-STRAPPED police forces are to get an increase in funding from the Home Office – for the first time in 10 years. But police chiefs said the extra money won’t come close to making up for years of cuts, or let them cope with rising costs, including staff bills.
At the same time, the Government is allowing Police and Crime Commissioners to add an extra £24 a year on to council tax bills for band D homes, to raise extra money.
Durham Constabulary Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner Ron Hogg said: “The Government has recognised the need to put more resources into Policing, which I agree with, although the additional monies being allocated do not address previous funding cuts.
“The Government has agreed to fund police pensions fully, which is clearly a national issue and not one which should be put on the local tax payer.
“Giving PCCs the ability to increase Precept by up to £24 for a Band D property, which means a £16 increase per year for those on the lowest incomes in Band A properties, simply means that they are disadvantaging places like Durham and the hard-working people who live here.”
Police and Crime Commissioners will not be forced to introduce the full £24-a-year increase, but they are likely to say they have no choice other than to put up council tax bills by the maximum amount allowed. The rise in the police precept, added to council bills from April next year, will come on top of previous inflation-busting increases, such as the £12 rise imposed this year.
And it will also come on top of the annual council tax increase imposed by local councils across the North East, which have not yet been announced.
The Home Office is to increase funding for Northumbria Police from £222.6m to £227.1m. It will increase funding for Durham Constabulary from £84.7m to £86.3m.
It means the central grant for police forces has risen by more than inflation for the first time in eight years. Forces will also get a share of £143m distributed nationwide to help them pay the cost of increased pension contributions. But it follows years of cuts to the central grant for police.
According to the Home Office, if Police and Crime Commissioners impose the full £24-a-year increase in the police precept, Durham Police will have a total funding increase of £7.5m next year while Northumbria will have an increase of £18m.
MP and Police Minister clash over fundingNewcastle Central’s Labour MP, Chi Onwurah, said the money would not come close to making up for funding cuts in the past, and criticised the possible rise in the police precept.
Speaking in the House of Commons, she told policing minister Nick Hurd: “He is moving funding for the police on to council tax payers when wages are still flatlining and in-work poverty is at an all-time high.
“Northumbria has lost a third of its officers, with demand rising from burglary, historical sex abuse cases and counter-terrorism, as we saw just this week. So will the minister say to me whether this settlement will get us back our lost bobbies and give Northumbria police the funding they need so that hard-pressed police officers can do the job they love to do?”
Mr Hurd said most funding continued to come from central government.
Mr Hurd said Northumbria didn’t raise as much money as other forces from the police precept because of decisions taken locally in previous years. He added: “This is a settlement that builds on a settlement that put £5m