Blunt: Government caps Surrey police budget
John Healey MP, Minister for Local Government, today announced that he would be capping the Surrey Police budget. This decision is against the advice of both the Chief Constable of Surrey and the Surrey Police Authority. The Government claims that it is acting to protect Council Taxpayers but the result will mean cuts to police funding in Surrey.
The cause of Surrey’s funding crisis has been the steady erosion of central government support and the consequent reliance on locally raised taxes. The Government’s funding formula takes no account of Surrey’s policing needs and instead employs social indicators and other means to allocate funding as though Surrey were a rural force.
No consideration is given in the formula to Surrey’s proximity to London or of the national infrastructure of Heathrow, Gatwick and a large part of the M25 all of which are policed by Surrey Police. Nearly half of all robberies committed in Surrey are by criminals from outside the county and nearly 60% of organised crime is imported to Surrey from London.
In 1997 86% of the budget for Surrey Police came from central funds. This has consistently dropped to 55% last year. As a result the Police Authority has authorised extra funding from Council Tax to meet the shortfall – the police “precept”. In March the Government threatened to cap this and announced that they would do so today. As a result Surrey Police will not be adequately funded.
Speaking today Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate said, "The blame for the crisis in Surrey’s police funding must be squarely laid at the Government’s door. The funding formula is just one of the ways in which this Government has sought to undermine and emasculate public services in the Home Counties. Central funding used to support the police, schools and the health service and this Government’s cuts have forced local politicians to find money elsewhere or cut services."
Crispin Blunt went on to say, "Surrey has the most efficient police force in the country despite the unique challenges it faces. Surrey also pays out a huge amount to central funding in taxation. Yet the Government is still content to force cuts on the force. On this occasion they have even undermined the principle that Surrey taxpayers can choose to use local resources to fund their own force."
