Fed welcomes chiefs’ intervention on funding

6 June 2025

Police chiefs’ pleas for improved funding are long overdue, according to West Midlands Police Federation secretary Tim Rogers.

Tim has welcomed the fact that members of the National Police Chiefs’ Council have urged the Government to give forces the funding they need to deliver on Home Office pledges on crime, but argued they should have all been speaking up sooner.

“The Federation has often appeared to be a lone voice when talking about the impact of cuts on the police service we can offer the communities we serve,” says Tim.

“Ten years ago, when we first spoke out about the consequences of cuts to our budgets, we were accused of crying wolf by the former Prime Minister and Home Secretary Theresa May. Back then, there was an almost deafening silence from more senior officers.

“Yet, we have largely been proved to have been right. Cuts have had consequences in terms of crime levels, particularly violent crime, in terms of the quality of the services we have been able to provide and also in terms of officer morale and pay which have led to a retention crisis.  We were not scaremongering, and we were certainly not crying wolf.

Inadequate funding

“Now, while on one hand, it is sad that we have been proved right, it is also a reminder that the Government should listen to the experts in policing and that is the police officers who day in, day out are trying to meet ever-growing demand while inadequately funded.

“While the Police Federation’s views do not seem to be taken on board by the Government, perhaps now that police leaders are finding their voice, ministers will listen to what they are being told.

“Police officers want to help the Government fulfil its promises, they want to tackle crime, they want to provide communities with the policing services they want and need, but they have to have adequate funding for that. They also deserve to be paid fairly, something that will help with officer retention. The building block for fair pay will be the creation of a truly independent pay review process to replace the current system which is weighted too heavily in favour of the Government.”

Tim has also urged police and crime commissioners, including West Midlands PCC Simon Foster, to be more realistic about what they can deliver when setting out their plans for policing and tackling crime.

“We totally understand that PCCs want to set out their ambitions for improving the policing services their forces provide and explain to the public who have elected them what they will deliver,” says Tim.

“But they also need to be realistic. They cannot just set out their pipe dreams without being honest about the potential financial barriers to them delivering on their plans.”

Targets

As widely reported across the media last week, five chief officers – including West Midlands Chief Constable Craig Guildford - wrote to The Times newspaper predicting the Government would miss its key crime targets if the Government did not give police more funding in the June spending review.

Mr Guildford joined Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and the chiefs of Merseyside, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire in writing to The Times and citing “increasing public demand, growing social volatility” as well as new serious and organised crime threats “emboldened by the online world” as forthcoming challenges.

In an interview with Sky News, the Chief said neighbourhood policing and other services had to be pared back during the austerity years but he said without adequate funding police chiefs would again be forced to make tough decisions around rationalising services and slower delivery times.

“We want to reform, we want to keep delivering on the mission and to do that we need the cash maintaining,” he explained, saying the police chiefs were behind the Government’s plans to cut knife crime, tackle violence against women and girls and boost neighbourhood policing but finance would be needed to enable forces to deliver.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Mark said forces nationwide were carrying the “scar tissue of years of austerity cuts” and argued that, if they were to deliver on the Government’s plans, policing needed to be given more funding in the spending review.

Reform

He also explained that the policing model is out of date and called for radical reform.

His suggestions include having fewer policing organisations so they can be “more efficient, more capable and an effective national police agency that could lead to better coordination.

The Home Office pointed to a £1.2 billion increase in police funding, including £200 million to support 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and Special Constables as part of the Government’s Plan for Change.

The police settlement will be announced in Chancellor Angela Reeves’ spending review announcement which is due next week.

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