Councils told to raise taxes to pay for 3.5% police force funding increase
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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. Politics latest: Cow takes part in latest farm tax protest. Dame Diana added increasing the cost of council tax to fund the increase "strikes the balance between protecting taxpayers and providing funding for police forces".
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.
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.
