Council tax to rise to pay for 3.5% police force funding increase
Council tax bills are set to rise to pay for a 3.5% real terms increase in funding for police forces next year, the government has announced.
Council taxpayers in England and Wales will be asked to collectively pay an extra £329.8m to help pay for the funding increase, policing minister Dame Diana Johnson told MPs in a written statement.
The 2025-26 police force settlement will amount to £17.4bn, an increase of up to £986.9m on the current year.
Police and crime commissioners will be expected to make full use of their ability to raise the council tax precept to deliver the full increase in police budgets.
This will add £14 a year to the tax bill for the average Band D house, Dame Diana said.
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She added increasing the cost of council tax to fund the increase “strikes the balance between protecting taxpayers and providing funding for police forces”.
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said it is up to councils to decide if they raise taxes or not.
The additional funding will cover the costs of the pay rises given to officers by the government earlier this year, as well as the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions brought in by the budget.
It will also pay for recruitment to help meet the government’s neighbourhood policing promises.
Dame Diana Johnson has said councils will need to increase the tax they receive for policing. File pic: PA
There will be a £1bn increase to £19.5bn for the total amount going into policing, which is an overall 3% real terms rise.
Weeks after Labour won the election, Chancellor Rachel Reeves agreed a 4.75% pay increase for police officers.
In the October budget, she announced the amount employers contribute to national insurance would increase from 13.8% to 15% from April 2015.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in November police forces would be “compensated” for the increase.
She also announced an extra £500m of additional funding will be given to neighbourhood policing, with that funding included in the funding increase.
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Dame Diana said: “Of the £986.9m of additional funding for police forces, I can confirm that £657.1m of this is an increase to government grants, which includes an increase in the core grants of £339m to ensure police forces are fully equipped to deliver our safer streets mission.
“This also includes £230.3m to compensate territorial forces for the costs of the change to the employer national insurance contributions from 2025-26, and an additional £100m to kickstart the first phase of 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles.
“This will provide policing with the funding required to tackle crime and keep communities safe.”
Nigel Farage has successfully exploited the Commons recess to “grab the mic” and “dominate” the agenda, Harriet Harman has said.
Speaking on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, the Labour peer said that the Reform UK leader has been able to “get his voice heard” while government was not in “full swing”.
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Mr Farage used a speech this week to set himself, rather than Kemi Badenoch’s Tories, up as the main opposition to Sir Keir Starmer at the next election.
The prime minister responded on Thursday with a speech attacking the Clacton MP.
Baroness Harman said: “It’s slightly different between opposition and government because in government, the ministers have to be there the whole time.
“They’ve got to be putting legislation through and they kind of hold the mic.
“They can dominate the news media with the announcements they’re making and with the bills they’re introducing, and it’s quite hard for the opposition to get a hearing whilst the government is in full swing.
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“What we used to do when we were in opposition before 1997 is that as soon as there was a bank holiday and the House was not sitting, as soon as the half-term or the summer recess, we would be on an absolute war footing and dominate the airwaves because that was our opportunity.
“And I think that’s a bit of what Farage has done this week,” Harman added.
“Basically, Farage can dominate the media agenda.”
She went on: “He’s kind of stepped forward, and he’s using this moment of the House not sitting in order to actually get his voice heard.
“It’s sensible for the opposition to take the opportunity of when the House is not sitting to kind of grab the mic and that is what Nigel Farage has done.”
But Baroness Harman said it “doesn’t seem to be what Kemi Badenoch’s doing”.
She explained that the embattled leader “doesn’t seem to be grabbing the mic like Nigel Farage has” during recess, and added that “there’s greater opportunity for the opposition”.
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