Police budget crisis 'not averted' with tax rise

Derbyshire's most senior police officer says increasing council tax to help bridge the force's £8.5m funding gap will not completely solve the problem.

In a report, Chief Constable Rachel Swann highlighted the force's funding gap of around £1.5m had increased to £8.5m since September.

Ms Swann has called on the county's police and crime commissioner Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts to raise the portion of council tax to fund the force by the maximum of £14 a year for a Band D property.

"Crisis is not averted if I get this increase in council tax because I recognise this is not going to get any easier," she told BBC Radio Derby.

"Even with a maximum £14 council tax increase, further significant budget reductions and savings are necessary to enable a balanced budget to be set."

Ms Swann said the force had originally predicted a budget gap of about £1.5m by the end of the current financial year but changes announced in the government's autumn Budget had increased this to £5.5m.

She added the gap had then been "compounded" further by the Home Office grant settlement on 17 December, which had increased the amount the force needed to find to balance the books to more than £8.5m.

The force is primarily funded by council tax precepts and Home Office grants, said Ms Swann.

"Derbyshire Police is currently split 41% of council tax funding to 59% of Home Office grant funding," she said - with the split 30% to 70% a decade ago.

"This is the first time I have asked for the maximum precept to deal with these extra pressures we have," she added.

Ms Swann said the force's 10-year savings programme would help improve the force whilst "driving out inefficiencies".

The programme includes shutting down the force's Violence Reduction Unit from March.

"We can carry on a partnership tasking process without that team and I will have to put some of that workload onto other people", said Swann.

"All of the inefficiencies going forward is not on people and people costs, it's the back office functions like contracts and contract management."

The force is also looking to buy buildings that are cheaper to run and to pull out of existing building lease arrangements to "drive down costs".

Ms Swann said ideas such as placing solar panels on the force's HQ in Derby would save £500,000 a year on electricity bills.

However compulsory staff redundancies are not part of her plan.

"We will not be dropping below the number of police officers we have," she said.

"That's why I emphasize the savings without touching the frontline service as people are our greatest strength."

"The financial picture is getting increasingly stark and difficult but we have been really successful this last year and we have a good plan going forward", said Swann.

"The Police and Crime Commisioner does a survey before implementing the increase and there was overwhelming support for increasing council tax, which I am extremely grateful."

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