Northamptonshire Police commissioner warns government funding boost ‘falls short’

The Home Office has told the force that it will receive £192.3m for 2025/26, a 5.8 per cent increase on this year’s allocation.

Just over half of the budget will come directly from government grants, but an estimated £83.4m would be generated from council tax bills.

This funding settlement assumes Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) Danielle Stone will raise the police precept by £14 a year for a Band D household.

Last month, the PFCC office suggested that police need an increase of at least £15 to deliver priorities and maintain police officer numbers for the year.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called the settlement a ‘substantial increase in funding’, which will help to ‘kickstart the recruitment of neighbourhood police officers and crack down on the crimes blighting our high streets and town centres’.

A spokesman for the Office of Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC), Danielle Stone, said that the allocation ‘naturally falls short’ and savings will need to be delivered within policing next year.

Nationally, £100m has been committed to recruit an additional 13,000 neighbourhood officers, community support officers and special constables.

Northamptonshire has been allocated around £1m from the new Neighbourhood Policing Grant.

The OPFCC has said it is ‘awaiting clarity’ on how many officers and/or PCSOs the money is intended to fund.

It added: “The settlement includes a share of funding provided to help mitigate the impact of employers National Insurance and pay increases.

"It also provides an amount towards maintenance of the officer uplift put in place by the previous government.

"The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner is currently consulting on the level of council tax precept that people are prepared to pay to fund local policing, and on the strategic plan and priorities.

“Whilst the increases in grant funding are welcomed, there are still some funding shortfalls and cost pressures locally that will need to be addressed.

"The formula used to distribute funds is outdated and as such, Northamptonshire’s allocation naturally falls short.

"This is a national issue and continued to be raised by Commissioners around the country for the government to address.

"Therefore, efficiencies will still need to sought in order to balance budgets for 2025/26 and beyond.”

Responding to the national announcement on police funding, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Finance, Chief Constable Paul Sanford, said the settlement will ‘inevitability lead to cuts across forces’.

“The funding settlement announced today presents real challenges for policing, with forces facing an estimated £1.3bn gap in finances over the next two years. Our current funding model is outdated and means that the funding announced today will not be evenly shared across forces, resulting in some forces facing significant deficits.

“We continue to work with government to drive greater productivity and efficiency in our police service, however, without proper funding and investment, and with no resilience left in police budgets, efficiencies can only take us so far to meet these challenges.”