Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

SURREY MPs CALL ON GOVERNMENT TO END POLICE FUNDING CRISISSURREY TAXPAYERS BEARING TOO GREAT A BURDEN SAYS CRISPIN BLUNT

All eleven MPs representing the people of Surrey today signed a letter to the Police Minister, Tony McNulty MP, calling for a review of the funding formula. Last week Crispin Blunt called a meeting of Surrey MPs along with DCC Mark Rowley, Temporary Chief Constable of Surrey Police, and Jim Smith, Chairman of the Surrey Police Authority. In the light of that meeting and the news that the Government was considering capping the Surrey Police Authority all Surrey’s MPs have written to the Home Office Minister, Tony McNulty MP.

 

Surrey Police is currently funded by a combination of central funding and money from local taxes, including Council Tax known as the “police precept”. 48 % of Surrey Police’s budget comes from Council Tax and 16% from non-domestic rates. If the precept is not capped it will increase by 9.72%. While the people of Surrey already pay a higher percentage contribution to their police force than anyone else the crime committed in Surrey is increasingly coming from elsewhere. 46% of robberies, vehicle crimes and burglaries are committed by people from outside Surrey while 59% of organised gangs operating in Surrey are from outside. Surrey Police serve Heathrow, Gatwick and a substantial stretch of the M25 but the Government’s funding formula does not take these factors into account. It also fails to take into account that Surrey already exports £5.5 billion, £20,000 per family, to be spent outside Surrey and this does not include central government expenditure on national requirements such as defence, for example.

Speaking this morning Crispin Blunt said:

“I do not want to see Surrey Police forced to make cuts or to diminish their level of service – I am proud of Surrey Police’s excellent record and I think local people are right to value their force. However, we cannot allow the Government to keep cutting funds for Surrey Police and hope that local people will bear the burden. When police officers from Surrey are serving the whole country by protecting vital national interests in the South East it is absurd and unfair that the funding regime is that of a rural force far from the capital.

“Until now the Government has arrogantly treated local council taxpayers in Surrey as a cash cow to make ends meet. After ten years of seeing the Government penalise the people of Surrey it is time to say ‘enough is enough’. We now need the Government to take up its responsibilities.”