Port of Tilbury-Police Constable

[Fedster + 1,307]

Chancellor announces cash for counter-terrorism but police funding settlement will not be revealed until December.

Philip Hammond delivers the autumn budget

Date - 29th October 2018
By - Ian Weinfass - Police Oracle

1 Comment

 

Police budget holders did not get the present they were hoping for, as the Chancellor declared a budget to mark the “hard work of the British people paying off" declaring "austerity is coming to an end”.

Despite weeks of calls for a financial lifeline for the service – both because of ongoing strains and to cover an unexpectedly large technical pension adjustment bill which will wipe out existing savings plans, it was only counter-terror policing which received a budget announcement this afternoon.

Phillip Hammond declared an extra £650 million for local authorities for social care, an extra £1 billion for the Ministry of Defence, and just £160 million more for counter-terror policing in the next financial year.

Future CT funding will be “considered in the round at the next spending review”, he added.

He said: “I recognise that policing more generally is under pressure from the changing nature of crime.

“I also recognise the representations made on this by many colleagues […] and I can tell the house today that my right honourable friend the Home Secretary will review police spending power and further options for reform when he presents the police funding settlement in December.”

Last week Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, who leads on counter-terrorism nationally, highlighted the important role neighbourhood policing plays in supporting his area of responsibility.

Chiefs and PCCs have warned that £417 million will be needed by 2020/21 just to meet the extra costs of pension technical changes alone.

NPCC chairman Sara Thornton said recently this was equivalent to the funding of “nearly 10,000 officers”.

Northumbria PCC Dame Vera Baird said that the "budget has done absolutely nothing to support policing".

"This budget was the ideal opportunity for the Chancellor to give forces like Northumbria the resources needed to deliver the services expected by local residents now," she added.

"I am working hard to maintain neighbourhood policing, I had hoped that the Chancellor would have made extra money available to recruit more police officers - he didn’t.

"The tide hasn’t turned, the cuts are continuing – despite the Prime Minister’s belief that austerity is ending, we see no light at the end of the tunnel."

View On POlice Oracle