Money from the police funding review won’t be an instant fix

MONEY promised by the Government to pay for policing next year won’t provide an instant fix, Essex Police Federation has warned.

The Home Office’s provisional police funding settlement has found an extra £970m for police coffers for 2019/20 and the figure includes £153m towards the police pension deficit.

PCCs will receive £7.8bn in general Government grants and will have the option to ask households to contribute an extra £2 per month, up to a threshold of £24 per month for a Band D property.

That will place an expectation on the force to deliver quickly in Council Tax payers’ eyes, said Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor.

“It’s an expectation, but it’s an expectation that council tax payers here in Essex have already experienced because we had growth from the last council tax increase where the PCC put it up a couple of pounds.

“Members of the public have already experienced that it takes time for that money to translate into extra officers.

“But if that’s what members of our community are more concerned about, the fact that they’re not seeing it quick enough, I’d rather be dealing with that than we’re not getting any relief coming at all.”

The money promised by the Government equates to an additional £23m for Essex policing and will help with the ‘green shoots of recovery’ in the force, Steve said.

“It enables us to continue to see the green shoots of reinvestment after such a lean period and we have guarantees that it will transfer into more officers.

“So, we welcome it. Where the money comes from to my mind is a secondary concern. When things are so tight on the frontline, the fact that we are getting extra money, it might not be from the ideal source, but it’s welcome and it offers relief to our members here in Essex.”
Critics have said that placing the emphasis on local funding is another sign the Government is ‘passing the buck’ on policing, but Steve thinks it could hand some power back to regional authorities.

“From a national point of view, I completely appreciate that it is passing the buck to the local tax payer. Of course, it is, that’s what Police and Crime and Fire Commissioners, as we have in Essex, are all about.

“But it’s also insulating the centre from the local. Only now that we’re seeing the changes to the police cap, the centre is saying you can pay for it locally and they’re giving local politicians the ability to pay things locally.

“So, in a perverse way it’s giving more accountability to the local politicians. If they get that wrong, then we’ll take it up with them locally.

“We can have views on whether or not that’s the right thing to do and I want to see a fairer police funding formula from the centre.