Local contribution towards the cost of policing in Staffordshire
This consultation is for me to obtain your views on the council tax to be charged from April 2018, so that I can be well informed when making the decision about the level of funding for Staffordshire Police next year.
Policing across the UK is paid for partly by national taxation (income tax etc) and partly by local taxation (precept) which is part of annual council tax bill.
One of my responsibilities as Police and Crime Commissioner is to decide the local part, for example the amount people in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent pay towards policing.
From 2013 to 2016 I didn’t increase the amount people pay locally, because I was sure money could be spent more efficiently. 2017 saw the first increase in the local tax for four years. I increased it to help police deal with rising demand, internet-related crime, emerging harm and abuse and also to help keep communities safe at a time of threats from terrorism.
Over the last two years, overall Government funding for policing and security has been redirected more towards security services and other national agencies, adding to financial pressures locally. It means a larger proportion of the money spent on local policing is raised locally by PCCs, who are accountable to the electorate locally, rather than from national taxes through government.
The internet has internationalised and made more complex the most harmful crime and the extraordinary growth of online fraud, the sharing of child abuse material and many other types of cyber crime is increasing the demands on policing significantly.
The most local policing in communities isn’t as visible as it used to be despite the best efforts of police, because of rising demand generally. Neighbourhood policing must, however, remain the bedrock of policing here and my intention is to make sure it does.
All this and the need to reinforce the redesign of policing, so they can work better force to force across the country, means extra investment is now needed, particularly to tackle changing crime and increased demand. It is for that reason I want to ask local people for a little more money to support policing across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in 2018/19.
This consultation is asking for your views. It is not a referendum, but I promise to take account of local people’s views when making my decision. The work to be make sure policing here is efficient, which has been successful, will absolutely continue.
Matthew Ellis, Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner
The Formal Consultation
At present, the “policing precept” amount for a Band D property in Staffordshire is £3.48 per week (£181.16 for the year), which is used wholly to fund Staffordshire Police. This raises just under £61 million per year across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Currently the PCC is limited to increasing the policing element of council tax by just under 2% due to a cap fixed by central government. However, for the first time, the PCC is asking if the people in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent would be willing to pay more, if Government agreed to lift the cap nationally – a possibility in mid-December. If the cap was lifted it would provide the PCC more flexibility in setting the council tax level, which he would use to maintain funding for policing.
You can give your views by completing the online survey below.