Gloucestershire Police will see their share of council tax rise to the maximum allowed.
An increase of 4.5% has today been approved after the county’s police and crime panel held a meeting earlier.
For a band D property, this will see £14 added to the annual bill for policing, taking it from £308 to £322.
PCC Chris Nelson told the panel, “This has been the most difficult budget during my time as Police and Crime Commissioner. I have explored all the ways and means possible to get more money from the Government, but I have been left with no option.
“The aim to recruit more police nationally is welcome, but the Government isn’t giving forces sufficient money to meet further pay increases, or for the capital investment we’ll need to equip them.
“This is a settlement far short of what the Constabulary needs and I am left with no choice but to ask for the maximum increase in council tax in light of the annual Home Office grant announced just before Christmas.
“Yes, the settlement was a little better than I expected, but to enable us to balance our budget, which we are required to do by law, the Constabulary must make some changes to how it does things. And the reality is, that despite significant efficiencies already within the force, inflation, the rising annual costs of our recent officer uplift, the lack of money to fund the maintenance of our fleet, IT and buildings, we will still need to make further savings to balance our budget over the next few years.
“I have managed to stave off the most difficult choices for as long as possible, but I’m afraid the fact the Government has still not changed the outdated formula it uses to allocate funds, means with enormous regret, that a possible reduction of some police staff posts may be unavoidable. I have campaigned to stop smaller forces like Gloucestershire losing out, and stop ‘rewarding’ high crime urban areas at the expense of rural forces, but this has fallen on deaf ears.
“We are not alone in being in this position, as many other forces around the country are in a similar situation.
“Hard choices are inevitable”.
Gloucestershire Constabulary’s budget is already under pressure from inflation, increased demands, rising costs and interest rates, resulting in the need to make savings of around £12.3m in the next financial year.
A number of reductions in staff have already been taken through a mutually agreed resignation scheme, known as MARS, offered to staff in October.