Police Budgets Must Increase – And More Decisions Made Locally

17 January 2024

As elections loom in 2024, Norfolk Police Federation has urged politicians to increase police budgets and give Chief Constables the power to make local funding decisions. 

Norfolk Police Federation Chair Andy Symonds said: “My message to MPs of all political parties is that the first duty of Government is to protect and safeguard the lives of its citizens. Since the first round of austerity in 2010, I feel that the current Government has lost sight of this duty.  

“In my view, the second round of austerity is now upon us in the form of the 2024/25 police financial settlement.” 

The recent Policing Productivity Review found that police forces were cumulatively operating at around a £3 billion deficit. 

Andy said: “I implore politicians to increase police budgets and inflation-proof them.  

Protect the police financial settlement from further austerity.” 

He continued: “Remember we lost 20,000 experienced police officers due to austerity – we’ve only returned to the officer numbers we had in 2010. We also lost thousands of police staff and they haven’t been replaced, so we’re seeing a growing number of police officers doing jobs that once were completed by police staff. This means they are not out in our communities being visible, and preventing and detecting crime.  

“Nationally, 2,930 fully trained police officers are currently working in force control rooms. These roles are vital, but must be filled by police staff not police officers.

“So don’t increase police funding but with the caveat that the funding has to be used to recruit police officers only. Each Chief Constable should be able to make local, evidence-based decisions on how to spend the financial settlement.”