West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster has echoed calls from the powerful parliamentary Public Accounts Committee for government to finally deliver a reformed police funding formula, and deliver a fair deal for the West Midlands.
In a report published today, the committee concluded that the government, “is relying on a hopelessly outdated formula to allocate [police] funding, despite repeated calls from this Committee and its predecessors to reform its approach”.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said: “It does not surprise me that the Public Accounts Committee has called for the ‘hopelessly outdated’ police funding formula to be reviewed.
“The last review was in 2013, and successive governments have inexcusably failed to grip this issue. As a result, West Midlands Police will still have 520 fewer officers than it had in 2010, and we receive over £40m a year less than even the current formula says we should.
“This chronic failure is inexcusable. It means many forces, particularly in rural, low crime areas, have more officers than at any point in their history, while the West Midlands is denied the officers it needs to meet the demands of our area.
“I am concerned that the new police reform white paper is yet another missed opportunity to address these problems. While the new government has already fixed local government funding to the benefit of areas like ours, the white paper puts funding formula reform on the back burner, suggesting that it might not start until 2034.
“This would mean that West Midlands Police will have been structurally underfunded for over twenty years. It is unthinkable that we should continue to be left in such a deeply iniquitous and unfair position. Police funding needs to be fixed, and it needs to be fixed now.”
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