Would you pay more for the police?

by
18th January 2017

Police Crime Commissioner says she is reluctantly asking tax payers to pay more more money to help ‘protect local policing.’

Jane Kennedy said she has made the request following the announcement of a proposed 1.4% cut in funding – which she says will leave the force facing a grant reduction of £3.3m next year in comparison to this year.

To help fill this funding black hole, the Government has assumed that local people can pay more towards policing through their Council Tax. In fact, as part of the Home Office’s official financial settlement, they have already included in their calculations a 2% increase to the policing element of the Council Tax bill paid by local people.

This is the maximum increase allowed to the police precept, but even if local people do approve this increase, it will raise less than half the money lost by the grant reduction – just £1.4m. If this increase is not made, the police’s budget will effectively be cut even further.

Before making a decision on whether to make the increase expected by the Government, Jane wants to hear the views of local people. The Commissioner is holding a region-wide consultation asking people if they would be willing to contribute a little extra – 4p a week for the majority of Merseyside’s taxpayers – to make up for the Government shortfall and help her to limit the impact of these cuts.

Jane said: “The Government have not bothered to ask people if they are willing to contribute more for policing. There was no consultation. Instead when ministers have done their calculations, they have simply assumed that taxpayers can pay extra.

“I am extremely reluctant to ask local people to once again put their hands in their pockets to help supplement the funding for policing Merseyside.

“However, yet again my hands are tied. I have been left with no choice – if I don’t increase the amount of council tax collected towards policing, more police officer posts will go.

“We are now facing an additional £3.3m black hole. I can offset that by £1.4m by asking local people if they are once again happy to contribute a little extra, but it still does not make up the cut we are facing.

 


 

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