Amanda Milling, Member of Parliament for Cannock Chase, has welcomed today’s news of a substantial £450 million increase in police funding across England and Wales. This includes up to an additional £270 million in police force budgets, so individual forces have the resources they need to respond to changes in demand. Police funding in Staffordshire could increase by up £4.9 million in 2018/19 as a result of these changes.
The Government has announced changes that will give Police and Crime Commissioners the flexibility to increase their funding by increasing the police precept. The changes will allow Police and Crime Commissioners to increase the police precept that householders pay via their council tax bill by up to £1 per month, per property.
The Cannock Chase MP welcomed this announcement having recently called on the Minister for Policing, the Rt. Hon. Nick Hurd MP, to look at giving PCCs more flexibility in terms of increasing the police precept which will mean more funding being made available for frontline policing.
Amanda Milling said: “Giving PCCs the more flexibility to increase funding via the police precept is a common sense approach and sensible way of raising extra funding for frontline policing. In fact this is a change that I, along with some other Staffordshire MPs, have been calling for. Indeed, this empowers the local PCCs to make decisions as to what additional funding they feel they need, a decision that they are directly and democratically accountable for."
The Cannock Chase MP has also welcomed the extra measure announced by the Government to support local police forces which include an increase in funding for counter-terrorism policing, providing additional 7% increase in funding in 2018/19. In addition an investment in national priorities to drive greater efficiency and effectiveness, and the Special Grant (which supports the police to deal with exceptional costs like responding to terrorist attacks this year) increasing by £130 million.