Police funding 'very disappointing' - commissioner

A government funding announcement for Lincolnshire Police has been described as "very disappointing" by the county's police and crime commissioner.

The force has been allocated £173.2m for 2025, an increase of £8.9m on this year.

Just over half of the increase will come from Home Office grants but £4.1m will come from rises in council tax bills which are expected to go up by an average £14.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government was giving forces "a substantial increase" but police and crime commisioner Marc Jones said the Lincolnshire force was the worst funded in the country and was looking at a £57m deficit over the next four years.

The overall rise in funding to the force, combining Home Office grants and council tax bills, represents a 5.5% rise on the current financial year. That is the joint lowest in England, with Nottinghamshire.

Mr Jones said: "There is still a lot of detail to work through and we are currently crunching the numbers so we can get a full picture of what the announcement means for Lincolnshire Police.

"What is clear at this stage is that, despite already being the lowest funded force in the country, Lincolnshire has received the smallest increase in funding in England and that is very disappointing."

He added he was working with Chief Constable Paul Gibson to get the government "to understand the magnitude of the challenge facing the county".

Announcing the provisional settlement of £17.4bn for forces in England and Wales in 2025-26, Ms Cooper said the government was "providing a significant and much-needed increase in funding to help forces protect the public and keep our streets safe".

It includes an extra £230m to fund increases in employer National Insurance contributions and £100m to recruit an additional 13,000 neighbourhood officers, community support officers and special constables.

However, Chief Constable Paul Sanford of the National Police Chiefs' Council said the settlement presented real challenges for policing, with forces facing an estimated £1.3bn gap in finances over the next two years which "will inevitability lead to cuts across forces".

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