Police Funding 2020/21 - Give Your Views

The Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Keith Hunter, is asking residents to give their views about police funding in an online survey.

The General Election in December caused a delay in the announcement of the police funding settlement from Government. PCCs must know how much grant they are to receive from Government to allow them to calculate at what level they should set their Council Tax precept proposals to ensure a balanced budget. We are informed this announcement will now be made later this month but the PCC has a duty to consult with residents and make a decision on precept levels for 2020/21 to propose to the Police and Crime Panel on 6^th February. This allows very little time.

The police precept is the part of the Council Tax that contributes towards the total funding available to the Police and Crime Commissioner to provide policing, community safety and victims’ services.

Keith Hunter said: “Despite years of cuts from central Government and two unfunded pay rises during this year, which negatively impacted our spending plans, we have managed to keep Humberside Police on a firm financial footing through a robust strategy of managing savings and sensible use of financial reserves.

“Working closely with the Chief Constable, this approach enabled us to embark on the biggest recruitment of new officers in the force’s history and the force now has over 1900 police officers, an increase of around 500 since I became PCC in 2016. Communities are now feeling the difference of those extra officers and this will improve as time goes on unless further reductions in the value of Government grant are inflicted upon us.

“Although we await the final settlement from the Government, I have made some assumptions based upon recent Government announcements that there will be no further cuts to policing. I am also very aware that Council Tax payers have been hit by relatively large rises in recent years as the Government increasingly transferred the burden of paying for policing from central Government to local taxpayers. I am therefore proposing an inflation-only increase* to the policing precept of 2.2%. If we continue with our stringent efficiency plan, making millions of pounds of savings, this will enable us to maintain current numbers of officers with the potential for growth should the Government deliver on its recent announcements of additional officers.   

“This equates to an increase of 9p per week (£4.91 per year) in the policing precept for a Band D property. The majority of households within the Humberside Police area fall within bandings A, B and C so the financial burden would be less, and these are outlined in the table below. This decision is mine to make but I would welcome your views by clicking the survey link below. I will then make my proposal by the end of January which must be approved by the Humberside Police and Crime Panel.”   

*Based on the December RPI inflation rate of 2.2%  

The survey closed at midday on Wednesday 29th January, there were a total of 831 responses.

Agree with the Commissioner's proposals - 492 (59%)
Disagree with the Commissioner's proposals - 315 (38%)
Don't know - 24 (3%) 

The Commissioner's proposal was unanimously approved by the Humberside Police and Crime Panel on 6th February.

Residents can check which council tax band their property is in at: www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands