The latest, £19.5 billion annual funding by central Government of the police includes new funding of £100m to start the recruitment of 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers, police community support officers (PCSOs) and special constables, Labour has hailed.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This vital funding boost will enable forces to kickstart the recruitment of neighbourhood police officers and crack down on the crimes blighting our high streets and town centres. We recognise the financial and operational challenges that police forces across the country have faced in recent years, and that is why we are providing a significant and much-needed increase in funding to help forces protect the public and keep our streets safe.
“We will also work closely with forces at a national and regional level to maximise efficiency and innovation, so that every penny they receive goes as far as possible and provides real value for the public.”
The Labour Government has meanwhile stressed what it terms a major package of police reform, including a new Police Performance Unit to track local performance, and a new National Centre of Policing to harness technology and forensics.
One of the Conservative police and crime commissioners (PCCs), Matthew Barber in Thames Valley, cast doubt over the number 13,000. In a blog he wrote that as for PCSOs, ‘we’re struggling to fill the vacancies we’ve got, it’s not about the money to recruit’; an estimated 3000 extra special constables ‘are only ever going to be part-time’; he accused the current government of ‘effectively banking’ an extra 3000 police from the Conservative Government’s ‘uplift’ of police from the Boris Johnson regime, ‘and counting them in their own numbers’; leaving only 3000 ‘new police constable posts that will be funded by the Home Office’, he said. He added: “We already have a shortfall of £3.2m from decisions made by the government since the election on funding of the police pay rise and national insurance.”
For the APCC (Association of Police and Crime Commissioners), the Labour PCC for Durham Joy Allen, APCC Joint Finance Lead, said: “Police and Crime Commissioners and Deputy Mayors recognise the financial constraints that the government is operating under. We also acknowledge the funding being given to partly cover the last year’s pay award in part, and ringfenced resources to invest in the government’s planned additional 13,000 neighbourhood policing officers. However, to fully fund the nationally agreed pay award and deliver other policing and crime priorities, the government’s expectation is that PCCs and their equivalents will apply the full policing precept permitted for 2025/26, by increasing council tax bills.
“Whilst the financial pressures will differ between force areas, we will all experience the impact on policing. PCCs will have to balance the need to respond to local policing and crime priorities with the wider financial pressures on the service and on households.”
Meanwhile the Conservative PCC for Kent, Matthew Scott commented on a 4.2pc cut in central government funding for victim services in the county. The Ministry of Justice informed the PCC of a £2,073,216 funding settlement for 2025-26, or about £90,000 less than last year. He said: “This is obviously very concerning given there is an increased demand for support here in Kent, and given the charities providing that support are also being hit by national insurance increases and increases to pay.”
Photo by Mark Rowe; Cheltenham.
