Latest news with #budgetincrease
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Police to get above-inflation boost after 11th-hour spending review wrangling
Policing is expected to receive an above-inflation boost in the spending review after eleventh-hour Cabinet negotiations over the weekend. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is prepared to announce real-terms increases to budgets for the service every year as she sets out spending plans for the next three years on Wednesday. The Times newspaper reported the boost would see cuts to other areas of the Home Office, which had been facing a significant squeeze to pay for extra funding in the NHS and defence. Ms Reeves is expected to highlight health, education and security as top priorities when sharing out some £113 billion freed up by looser borrowing rules. But she has acknowledged that she has been forced to turn down requests for funding for projects she would have wanted to back in a sign of the behind-the-scenes wrangling over her spending review. Economists have warned the Chancellor faces unavoidably tough choices in allocating funding for the next three years. She will need to balance manifesto commitments with more recent pledges, such as a hike in defence spending, as well as her strict fiscal rules which include a promise to match day-to-day spending with revenues. The expected increase to police budgets comes after two senior policing figures publicly warned the Chancellor that the service is 'broken' and forces are left with no choice but to cut staff to save money. Nick Smart, the president of the Police Superintendents' Association, and Tiff Lynch, acting national chairman for the Police Federation of England and Wales, said policing was in 'crisis'. In a joint article for the Telegraph, they said: 'Police forces across the country are being forced to shed officers and staff to deliver savings. These are not administrative cuts. 'They go to the core of policing's ability to deliver a quality service: fewer officers on the beat, longer wait times for victims, and less available officers when crisis hits.' The Department of Health is set to be the biggest winner in Ms Reeves' spending review on Wednesday, with the NHS expected to receive a boost of up to £30 billion at the expense of other public services. Meanwhile, day-to-day funding for schools is expected to increase by £4.5 billion by 2028-9 compared with the 2025-6 core budget, which was published in the spring statement. Elsewhere, the Government has committed to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product on defence from April 2027, with a goal of increasing that to 3% over the next parliament – a timetable which could stretch to 2034. Ms Reeves' plans will also include an £86 billion package for science and technology research and development.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Police win funding battle with Rachel Reeves after warning to cut services
POLICE chiefs have won their funding battle with the Chancellor to increase their budgets after warning of cuts to services, The Sun understands. Rachel Reeves will put forward a real-terms increase after they demanded a rise. 2 It came amid fears some crimes would have to be ignored — and after heated talks between the Chancellor and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper ahead of Wednesday's spending review. It also emerged last night that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has settled her spending plans amid fears of cuts to housing and council budgets. Meanwhile, the 10million pensioners who lost winter fuel payments last year will find out as early as today whether they will have it reinstated after a screeching policy U-turn. Pressure was put on Ms Reeves to up police funding as forces insisted they could hit breaking point over the early prisoner release scheme. Force leaders warned PM Sir Keir Starmer any settlement failing to address their inflation and pay pressures would leave them making 'stark choices' about investigations to pursue. Labour pledges, including halving knife crime, were also said to be in jeopardy without the extra funding. Cabinet minister Peter Kyle yesterday appeared to signal the boost was coming, telling the BBC: 'We expect the police to start embracing the change they need to do, to do their bit for change as well. "We are doing our bit. "You see a Chancellor that is striving to get investment to the key parts of our country that needs it the most.' The Tories accused Labour of 'splurging' on wasteful projects. When Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp was pushed on where he would cut, he said he would 'go further' on welfare. Rachel Reeves responds to new figures from the ONS which shows GDP increased by 0.7% between January and March 2
CTV News
5 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
‘Higher than anticipated' salary settlement causing pressure on Saskatoon police budget
Saskatoon's police chief says an arbitrator's decision over a new collective agreement is raising officers' salaries and putting pressure on the service's budget. Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) Chief Cam McBride said a settlement finalized last December for backpay is largely the reason for a 10.4 per cent increase to its 2026 budget being presented to Saskatoon City Council. 'It was higher than we anticipated,' McBride said. 'Looking at the financial pressure over the course of the contract, we were able to absorb that within savings for 2025.' But an additional $4.7 million that can't be covered by the SPS stabilization fund is needed to carry forward to the 2026 budget, he says. With a new contract set for Jan. 1, 2026, McBridge says the service needed to factor in additional salary increases and large call volumes in its 2027 ask to council. 'When you look at the significant increase, it's predominantly making up for contract settlements from previous years,' McBride said. A financial forecast released by city administration on Wednesday warned of property tax increases of 9.9 per cent in 2026, and 7.34 per cent in 2027. Police account for nearly 22 per cent of all spending at City Hall — the highest of any expenditure. The 2025 budget totaled $141.4 million when approved last December. Next year, initial estimates provided to administration outline an increase of $13.6 million, or 10.42 per cent. In 2027, the police budget is expected to grow by another $9.2 million, or 6.41 per cent. By these estimates, Saskatoon's police budget would account for a 4.09 per cent increase to property taxes alone next year. The arbitration award last December came out just days after city council finalized the SPS budget. On Thursday, McBride made the case for his team. He said police can't ignore the growing number of calls for service after roughly 30,000 people moved to Saskatoon in the last two years. While he said the growth in its budget is 'very responsible,' it won't leave the city or community safety vulnerable. 'We're doing the very best we can to manage through a difficult year,' he said. 'But certainly, our growth plans remain solid, and our commitment to the City of Saskatoon remains solid.' Work to reduce the potential property tax hike has already begun for city council. Mayor Cynthia Block says council could vote through a zero per cent property tax increase, but it would come at the cost of police or core services. She said she doesn't want to make the mistake other cities do when it comes to reducing budgets by 'kicking the can down the road' and would rather keep up with best practices when it comes to roadways or sidewalks and maintain existing funding, so Saskatoon doesn't fall behind. 'I don't know, these are the important conversations that we're going to have to have over the coming months to try to bring this in line with what people can afford, and I guess what we might be willing to give up,' Block said. Administration is recommending a city committee refine the budget to reduce the proposed property tax rate increases by 1 percentage point when it meets next week. To do so, the city would need to find savings of $3.31 million in the 2026 budget. A city report said this could be accomplished by adjusting proposed phase-ins for projects like fire halls and a new leisure centre previously approved by council. All budget numbers are estimates and are subject to change ahead of budget deliberations in November.
New York Times
7 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Sharp Hike in Nuclear Arms Budget Sought as Science Funding Is Slashed
The White House is asking Congress for a major jump in the nation's budget for designing, making, maintaining and reconditioning its nuclear arms. According to a budget justification sent in recent days to Congress, the Trump administration wants the annual spending on the weapon activities of the National Nuclear Security Administration to increase from $19 billion this year to roughly $30 billion in the 2026 fiscal year, a rise of 58 percent. The document calls the hike 'a historic investment' in the nuclear enterprise. Currently, the complex of facilities employs 65,500 people at eight main sites from coast to coast. The justification document was sent to Congress by the Energy Department, which oversees the semiautonomous nuclear security agency. The White House request comes as the Trump administration seeks to slash budgets in many other agencies that specialize in scientific research, including NASA, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. Critics have accused the administration of cutting back research at the forefront of human knowledge, and the proposed nuclear investment seems likely to intensify those objections. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bloomberg
29-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
DOGE Has Failed to Halt Increases in Federal Spending
Amid the layoffs, canceled programs and other cutbacks in Washington since Donald Trump moved back into the White House in January, one thing hasn't changed: Federal spending has just kept going up. Spending since Jan. 21 is up 8.7% over the equivalent period in 2024, 7.2% over 2023. Some kinds of federal spending are irregular and intermittent, and any comparison like this can be affected by the timing of payments, but the Congressional Budget Office's latest monthly budget review made adjustments for timing shifts and estimated that spending in the 2025 fiscal year, which began in October, was up 7% through April over the same period a year earlier. The increase appears to be real. What's driving it? The Daily Treasury Statement from which these numbers are derived breaks down what it calls 'withdrawals' into 102 categories, one of which — public debt cash redemptions — is excluded here because it's not really spending. 1 I've consolidated the other 101 here into cabinet departments plus a few agencies and programs with large spending changes relative to the equivalent period last year.
