Greater Manchester Police could lose another 1,560 police officers because of changes to the way the government allocates funding.
Little information has been given out by the Home Office about the changes to the police funding formula, but – based on the scant information available – Greater Manchester could be facing an additional cut to its police service of between £53m and £75m.
That is the equivalent of between 1,060 and 1,560 officers and comes on top of £175m already slashed from the policing budget.
Greater Manchester’s Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd has now demanded Home Secretary Theresa May comes clean and tells the region exactly what they can expect in terms of cuts.
He said: “By keeping the details of this change to the funding formula secret, you have to wonder what the Home Secretary has got to hide. It’s time for her and the government to come clean.
“As things stand, we simply can’t make plans for the future which creates additional uncertainty for the people of Greater Manchester. It’s unacceptable.”
GMP Chief Constable, Sir Peter Fahy, has also written to the Home Secretary to ask for urgent clarification.
The Home Office is currently consulting on the planned changes to the funding formula.
But despite asking the public to give their views on the proposed changes, the lengthy document finds no room to give any examples of what the proposed changes may mean for any particular area.
The consultation proposes a change from the historic funding formula from one which reflects relative need to a system based on population levels, the underlying characteristics of the local population and the environmental characteristics of the area.
Mr Lloyd’s office says it is highly likely that Greater Manchester will suffer cuts as a result, but Home Office officials have refused to give any examples of what the changes will mean in practice – and have said they won’t give these details till October, one month after the consultation period ends.
The police service in the UK is funded through a combination of government grant and money raised locally through council tax.
Due to economic deprivation and other factors, areas like Greater Manchester rely more heavily on the central government grant, so any changes to the formula will disproportionally affect our region.
The consultation document is available from the Home Office here.
