Police force ‘on the edge’ facing £16m funding gap
Local Democracy Reporter
SOUTH Wales Police is already facing an initial £16m budget gap for next year – equivalent to the cost of 320 officers – new figures have revealed.
The figure, which does not take into account any council tax precept increase yet, was revealed to members of the South Wales Police and Crime Panel at their meeting on Tuesday.
Umar Hussain, the chief finance officer for the force, told members of the panel meeting in Merthyr Tydfil that the the gap is the equivalent to the cost of 320 officers, 400 PCSOs and 240 police staff members.
The force has already made more than £6m savings but the near-£23m spend leaves an initial shortfall of £16.4m for 2019/20.
If there is a 1% precept rise next year, the force expects that will generate £1.15m.
The initial budget gap (excluding any precept rise) for 2019/20 was £11.5m but this has risen because of various pressures such as the apprenticeship levy, increased employer contributions to the pension scheme, unfunded pay awards, inadequate infrastructure funding and the increased dependency on technology to manage rising demand.
Mr Hussain said the force is looking at various areas where it can make savings including managing its estate with South Wales Police having the most number of stations outside of London.
He said: “We are very progressive and making the best we can out of our resources.
“The home office have accepted the case for additional funding for police.”
But he said the burden of that funding is being passed on to local taxpayers.
“We are on that edge now. We have managed austerity far better than we would have done without investment. That is all at risk,” said Mr Hussain.
Matt Jukes, the chief constable of South Wales Police, told panel members that the recent pay increases for staff had not been funded and that the force has had to absorb this. He said a 2% rise would cost the force £6m if the funding didn’t follow from the UK Government.
Mr Hussain also said that the employers’ contribution to pensions had risen from 24% to 34%.
Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales Alun Michael said it is “outrageous” that the force is being asked to find an extra £4m this year and £10m next year to fund officer pensions and plug the gap left by the Treasury. He said there was less coming through officer contributions because there were fewer officers and that they were increasing employer contributions massively.
He added: “They (the Treasury) have a moral obligation to fund it. We should not be filling the gap.”
Meanwhile, in terms of providing “value of money”, Mr Hussain said that in the past seven years the force had spent 57p per head of population every day, which is 2p more than similar forces in other parts of the UK.
He added that the rate of crime in that time had been 79 crimes per 1,000 people but that the figure for similar forces elsewhere is 99 per 1,000 people so there is a 20% less chance of being the victim of crime for a 2p difference in terms of cost.
He said this is a “huge difference” and that in that period the force had essentially delivered the equivalent of £500m less harm in terms of the social and economic costs of crime compared to other similar forces.
Panel member Melvin Jehu, addressing the commissioner and chief constable said: “Your are providing value for money. You have been good guardians of the public purse.”
The commissioner will present his next police and crime plan to the panel in the new year.