Rupert Matthews is the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
This year, the budget-setting process for policing Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland was anything but straightforward. In fact, it was a bit of a nightmare.
Let me set the scene. Last autumn, I and the Chief Constable had managed to achieve a sustainable budget for the entire five-year period of the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) without the use of reserves. This was the healthiest position the force had been in for a decade. Anyone who has taken over from a Labour administration will understand how difficult it was to get to that position.
As a good Conservative, I believe that taxes should be as low as possible both to boost the economy and as it is morally right to allow people to keep more of their own money. And the only sustainable way to ensure low taxes is to keep government spending under control.
As a Police and Crime Commissioner, it falls to me to curb spending where possible, but also to ensure that the police of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland have the equipment, training, and backup, that they need to do their job properly.
Being pulled in two directions isn’t fun, but the answer lies in ensuring value for money and the most cost-effective way of providing what is needed. We were all set to step up a gear on this vital work when the budget was suddenly blown off course.
Inflation is a problem for everyone across the private and public sector, but utilities and fuel have been a particular issue given the huge mileage covered by our police cars and other vehicles.
By far the biggest issue, however, was the pay award given in 2022-23. Police officers and staff were awarded a rise of £1,900 each. This was very welcome and fully deserved – and has helped with recruitment to some staff posts where we were experiencing difficulties.
The problem came with the fact that only half of the pay agreement for officers was covered by the central government grant. An even bigger pressure came with the staff award, for which we received no funding help at all. That left us with a big black hole in our purse to the tune of £5.8m for this year, £7.8m for next year, and more in future years. We are needing to find savings of 3.4 per cent simply to stand still.
So, armed with spreadsheets and calculators, I sat down with the senior finance teams from both the Force and my own office to tackle the budget.
I was determined to maintain police officer numbers at 2,242 full time equivalents. After all the work to recruit our Uplift officers on schedule, delivering the increased police officer numbers promised by the Conservative government, it would have been a travesty to promptly cut them again. And PCSOs are key to the community relations that lie at the heart of public trust and confidence in the Force.
But I had to be realistic. Something had to give. Wages account for 83 per cent of the entire budget. So we agreed to plan for reductions in police staff in this current year.
I transferred £620,000 from my own reserve to the Force budget. This is a one-off payment that was given to the Chief Constable on the understanding that it would be used to help mitigate the reduction in the number of staff posts. The plan is that by this time next year we will have reduced our staff numbers by up to eight per cent. That should make us sustainable under current figures.
Wilkins Micawber would be proud of us.
Of course, getting there will involve some pain. We are hoping, however, that much can be achieved by natural wastage and redeployment, but we will see.
Officer and staff wellbeing also had to feature in our computations. Change always brings uncertainty and has an unwelcome effect on morale until things have bedded in. Not what I want, but I accept that sometimes you have to make difficult decisions.
And we must hope that there are no more nasty surprises, or it may prove necessary to look at police officer numbers again.
Having looked at expenditure, that left income. The government set a limit on a rise in the precept at £15. That would close the budget gap, but I wasn’t sure what local residents would feel about this. Many of them are struggling financially.
So, I asked them via a survey if they were willing to pay more towards policing. I put the financial figures before them, and in response, over 50 per cent of respondents were willing to pay £15 more a year towards policing.
As with transferring money from reserves, this can only be a temporary fix. Just as reserves eventually run out, so the willingness of the public to pay higher taxes is also finite.
With the help of the Chief Constable and his team, I have managed to square the circle for this year. Now we can crack on with ensuring value for money and cost-effective provision while at the same time managing down the number of staff positions.
As for next year? Well, we will see.