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Give your views on local police funding by 27 January 2019

18 Jan 2019 - 10:40 by michelle.foster

Funding for the police comes both directly from central government and also a proportion of your council tax. Greater Manchester Combined Authority

About 80% of the funding for the police comes in a grant from the government, and the Mayor is responsible for setting the amount of council tax that local households pay for the police.

Since 2010 the government has cut the amount of cash they provide to Greater Manchester Police by £215 million. This has resulted in the loss of 2,000 police officers – a 25% reduction – and 1,000 police staff and PCSOs.

At the same time the police are having to deal with ever increasing serious and complex crimes, such as cybercrime, terrorism, child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

Recently the Government announced they will provide an additional £15m to Greater Manchester for 2019/20. However, this funding will only cover a shortfall in police pensions – an additional financial burden that has been caused by the Treasury moving the goalposts on how it calculates pension contributions and passing the shortfall onto local police forces.

Therefore, if police forces are to be able to increase police officer numbers so they can cope with the increasing serious and complex crimes, the funding can only come through local taxes. However, the Government also sets limits on how much council tax we can charge you for police services. This year they have said Greater Manchester can increase it by a maximum of £24.00 per household – this would raise £18m extra for Greater Manchester.

Consultation
The Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Crime and Policing shortly have to decide the amount of council tax that local households will pay for the police over the course of 2019/20, and they would like to know how you feel about the proposals. Complete the survey here: www.gmconsult.org/police-and-crime-team/police-funding-2019/ by 27 January 2019

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