A MISSED opportunity for policing is how Warwickshire’s police chief has described the government’s spending review.
Warwickshire police and crime commissioner Philip Seccombe also warns it will inevitably leave local taxpayers responsible for meeting the majority of the county’s police funding.
He described the announcement by chancellor Rachel Reeves of an average 2.3 per cent increase in police funding as “misleading”, given that it included funding increases already announced in the first two years of Parliament. The true figure over the remainder of Parliament is 1.7 per cent on average, but the reality is local forces will receive even less central funding.
Mr Seccombe said: “The chancellor gave the impression that government funding for policing is to increase year-on-year in real terms. This is misleading as the actual amount that we will receive in Warwickshire will be considerably less. This is because the figures announced yesterday included estimated funding from the police portion of council tax, known as the police precept.
“This presumably has been calculated by the treasury at the highest rate to deliver a more positive headline. Add in the fact that central funding is also top-sliced to pay for counter-terrorism policing and you can quickly see the amount individual forces will receive is much less generous.
“What is supposedly central funding will in large part be raised locally, which makes a nonsense of the chancellor’s subsequent claims that council tax will not increase. At best, what funding there is may only cover annual inflationary pay increases for officers and staff. At worst, it will leave a widening funding shortfall which will hamper forces in equipping the front line to service the rising demand for policing.
“With the police precept already contributing almost half of the revenue funding for Warwickshire Police, the chancellor’s announcement will only result in that burden shifting ever more towards local taxpayers. All police and crime commissioners will be effectively required to increase the police precept by the maximum amount to achieve what in return may not even be a standstill position.
“While any increase in government funding is clearly better than none, this CSR represents a missed opportunity and will not fundamentally change what is a challenging picture for policing.”
