THE Government has promised the biggest cash boost for police "in a decade" as it announced its funding plans for the coming financial year.

Funding for forces will increase by more than £1.1 billion in 2020/21, of which £8.702 million will come from Government grants, the Home Office said.

The total amount of funding available for the year could reach £15.2 billion - if police and crime commissioners ask council tax payers again to stump up extra cash to pay for services.

According to the announcement, the money includes:

  • £700 million to recruit 6,000 officers - the first phase of the 20,000 pledged over the next three years.
  • £150 million made available to fight organised crime and crack down on online child abuse.
  • £39 million allocated to tackling serious violence - including £20 million to target county lines drug dealing.
  • £906 million for counter-terrorism policing, which was announced earlier in the week.

But in a written ministerial statement to Parliament, Crime and Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said the £153 million allocated to cover pension costs was "held flat" compared to the previous year and the figure would be "reconsidered" at the next spending review.

Mr Malthouse said "it is only right that in return the Government holds the police to account on delivering for the public", adding that the police are expected to achieve "measurable improvements" including addressing "efficiency and productivity".

West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) Mark Burns-Williamson said that although the funding announcement for West Yorkshire was cautiously welcomed, in real terms local policing still faced complex and demanding challenges. He added: “Although the settlement announcement is a step in the right direction and well overdue after a decade of austerity, West Yorkshire still faces many complex and challenging demands.

“It is also really important to remember this is only a one-year settlement which again leaves us with a degree of uncertainty going forward in the absence of any timetable for reform of the police funding formula and how it will be allocated.

“Today’s announcement includes £700m for the recruitment of 6,000 additional officers nationally by end of March 2021. That will be an increase of 256 for West Yorkshire, though still means a reduction of 510 officers from 2010 levels.

“It will also take three to four years at least to feel the full impact of the officers to be recruited to frontline duties given the introduction of the Police Education Qualification Framework (PEQF) from 2020 which requires much longer periods of new recruits spending time in training and educational settings. I don’t think the Government have fully understood the impact this will have on the timeline of achieving the uplift figures.

“It’s disappointing that the Home Office still haven’t confirmed what is happening with the funding formula despite repeated calls from me and many others asking them to review it. We know if it was properly reviewed, the evidence and level of demand shows that areas like West Yorkshire should receive many millions more per year.

“The specific details of the settlement and what it means for us locally need to be worked through, but again the Government have assumed PCC’s raising the precept by the full amount £10 on a Band D property as part of their overall figures.

“I have already launched a consultation on the police budget and I am asking for views because in order to meet the other cost pressures not covered in the uplift amounts, we will need to raise the police precept which is the part of the council tax that helps to fund policing locally and accounts for about 30% of the total West Yorkshire Police budget.

“But this puts an extra burden on local taxpayers by the Government looking to PCCs to increase the precept to meet these costs. Here in West Yorkshire the central government grant for policing has been cut by £140m since 2010 (around a 30% cut).

“Despite the funding promises now, we still need to find money for well-earned pay awards, pension shortfalls and general inflationary costs across the board, which are also not included in this uplift money or the overall settlement figure. This is something we have to address and manage locally.

“West Yorkshire Police definitely faces cost pressures recruiting into police key staff roles, whether that is digital investigators, call handlers or Police Community Support Officers or call handlers. These are all crucial jobs that need to be carried out in supporting our visible front line policing and it all needs funding and paying for.

“As PCC I want to continue increasing frontline policing, putting more police officers in our neighbourhoods and to make sure communities are safe and feel safe, which I know is a priority for many people.

“That will have to mean a precept increase because the Government’s promise to ‘strengthen our police service and tackle unacceptable levels of crime’ will mean some of that money has to come locally to cover all the costs not fully covered in settlement announced today in Parliament.”

The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police John Robins QPM said: “We are currently considering the implications of this national settlement and what it means for operational policing here in West Yorkshire.

“Whilst we clearly welcome the funding for the first instalment of an extra 20,000 police officers nationally over three years, there are still some significant and difficult financial challenges facing West Yorkshire Police over the coming years.”

“For example, there is no direct funding in this settlement for last September’s pay award of 2.5% for our officers, nor for any pay awards for staff this year or for any other inflationary cost increases.  This operationally leaves us in the position where we still have to find savings in a budget that has already been reduced by many millions of pounds over the last ten years.

“Similarly, when we are already short of capital funding, it is difficult to understand the announced 75% cut to our capital grant.  This is unusual, especially at a time when we are trying to operationally invest in new IT and buildings to make the organisation fit for future challenges and the growth in demand.”

John Apter, the national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales which represents rank-and-file officers, said this was "clearly a better" financial settlement for policing than previous years, adding: "The Government has listened and started to invest in policing but once again the buck has been passed to police and crime commissioners and local taxpayers. This is simply unfair."

Last week Mr Apter told the PA news agency it would be "unforgivable" if politicians failed to act on "desperately needed" long-term funding for policing,

He called on ministers to rewrite the rules on funding by introducing "at least" a 10-year strategy for budgets to allow forces to properly plan for the future instead of sticking to the current annual review.

Reiterating this call on Wednesday, he added: "Boom-and-bust, short-term, one-year financial settlements do not work, and forces shouldn't have to operate on a 'hand-to-mouth' basis. The Government has admitted the funding formula is outdated and must urgently address this."

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the announcement showed the Government was "delivering on the people's priorities" and would mean "more officers tackling the crime blighting our streets, so people can feel safe in their communities", adding: "The police must now make full use of this significant investment to deliver for the public."

Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said it was a "positive settlement for policing overall.

Roger Hirst, who leads on finance for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), said the news was "extremely welcome" while his deputy Paddy Tipping added: "This is a first step in building police numbers again.

"We need to recognise that it will take three years to get back to the level of officer numbers that existed in 2010.

"Many of the cost pressures we face, including cost of inflation and pay awards, will have to be met locally through the precept.

"Once again, it needs to be acknowledged that with different levels of precept and share of budget accounted for by council tax, the level to which forces benefit will vary from the precept increase."