2 days ago
Tory taxpayers to bear brunt of Reeves's squeeze on police
Council taxpayers in Tory areas will bear the brunt of Rachel Reeves's squeeze on police funding, official figures show.
Police forces in rural areas, which are predominantly under Tory control, have to draw twice as much of their budgets from council taxpayers as metropolitan areas, which are largely overseen by Labour police and crime commissioners.
Conservative Surrey funds 57 per cent of its budget through its policing precept on council tax at the top of the table compared with 21.8 per cent for the West Midlands, 24.3 per cent for Merseyside and 27.1 per cent for the Metropolitan Police Service, which are all Labour-controlled, according to official data for 2024.
This disparity means that they can only plug gaps from the Chancellor's police cuts through a disproportionate reliance on their council taxpayers who face an anticipated increase of £14 on their tax bills for Band D properties, or more than five per cent.
The figures come a day after police chiefs warned Ms Reeves that the funding shortfall would mean they would be unable to deliver on the Government's pledges to put 13,000 more neighbourhood bobbies on the beat and halve knife crime and violence against women and girls.
Ms Reeves pledged police forces would get an increase of 2.3 per cent in their spending power, but this included the council tax precept on which rural areas disproportionately rely for their funding.
