County Durham and Darlington PCC Joy Allen has expressed her disappointment at the Chancellor’s autumn statement.
Joy Allen said: “There will be no more money for policing in Durham to make up for the simple fact that we still have fewer officers than 13 years ago. I have repeatedly raised this as an issue, the Government recognise it also, but today’s statement by the Chancellor means we are being short changed again. The Chancellor said he expects productivity gains in policing which is a clever way of saying he expects our officers, PCSOs and staff to do more with less. Our officers are already dealing with more crimes than the national average and I would like to ask him how he can expect more from them.”
The Chancellor has also announced an increase in the minimum wage, reductions in national insurance for workers and tax breaks for businesses.
Joy Allen added: “I welcome the increase in the minimum wage and changes to national insurance as this will help the public with their own cost of living crisis. But an increase in the minimum wage will cost the force a lot of money which will no doubt be expected to be passed on to the council taxpayer. This follows on from what has been happening for the last 13 years whereby the Government expects the public to pay more for policing despite the unfair way in which it allocates the police funding grant to us. But it gets worse, as there is still no money to invest in buildings, which is what the public wants as it provides reassurance. I shall be writing to the Chancellor to put my points of view to him.”