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Police Funding (Gloucestershire)

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. The constabulary has significant cost pressures and is one of the more poorly funded police forces. If it is to do what I have suggested—keep council tax under control and not put a huge burden on local residents—it will have to look across its whole range of spending and make some economies. We do not want front-line police officers removed, but that limits the constabulary's options, so it may have to look at rural police stations. I very much hope that it does not, and we hope that it is not forced to do so, but there is a real risk. The police authority must play its part in keeping council tax under control. It will be tough, but Gloucestershire residents will expect their constabulary and police authority to look for as many savings as they can without hitting front-line police officers and the front-line policing that we all want. The county council works in partnership with the local police force. The council will deliver a record low council tax rise this year of just 2.9 per cent., and I hope that the police can aim for that sort of number, although I recognise that the Government's financial settlement is less generous to the police than it is to the county council. One very helpful thing has happened. Since 2005, the Conservative administration running Gloucestershire county council has delivered on its commitment to fund 63 new police officers throughout the county—broadly one for every county council division. The final officers will be in place by this May, and the measure has made a real difference by putting in place officers who are used for community policing—getting police out on the beat. They are named officers who are known to their local communities, and the policy has been a significant step forward. One thing worth remembering, however, is that, because of the extra funding from the local tax payer, the Government like to claim that there are now more police on the street, but in Gloucestershire all of that increase has effectively been funded by the local council tax payer. If it was not for the increase in the council tax precept, we would have fewer police in Gloucestershire today than we had 11 years ago. Further, should the floor to the formula grant be removed, Gloucestershire will lose funding that is equivalent—the chief constable has calculated—to 62 constables, which is almost exactly same number that the county council has funded from the council tax over the past four years. That would be a retrograde step, and particularly damaging for policing in rural parts of the county, where we really appreciate those officers.