Council tax hike but no extra police officers amid acrimony over funding

Furious police and crime commissioner (PCC) David Jamieson says he has been left with no choice but to increase WMP's council tax precept by £24-a-year, claiming the police funding settlement only allows his force to "standstill".

He has accused the Government and the Civil Service of "misleading" the public over claims that police budgets would see a real terms rise in 2019-20.

WMP will get an extra £34.2 million – including a Government grant of £8.9m and a £7m grant to help cover a shortfall that comes after Whitehall ordered force's to hike their pensions contributions.

The remaining £18.3m will come from the planned council tax rise.

But in an explosive intervention at a meeting of the strategic policing board, Mr Jamieson revealed his overstretched force's pensions bill was now likely to be £15m rather than £8.6m, meaning WMP effectively gets no extra cash.

"The grant from government just about covers that," the Labour PCC told the meeting.

"What they called extra funding was not extra funding, it was standstill funding."

Mr Jamieson described the prospect of increasing the police council tax precept as "extremely unfortunate", and said it would bring in £18m – a position that would be offset by inflation of £17m.

"This will not bring in extra police officers. It will mean we just don't shrink any further," he said.

"I've got used to ministers not telling the truth, but I think on this issue the Civil Service has misled us as well."

Accusing the Government of "smoke and mirrors", he added: "The very best we have got is a standstill budget where we don't reduce the number of officers.

"I feel very strongly that the Government has not been straight with us. It's seriously misleading."

WMP has lost more than 2,000 officers since 2010, and has also seen £175m in budget cuts. The force now has around 6,500 full time officers.

Crime has rocketed by 10 per cent in the West Midlands over the past year, with violent crime up by 18 per cent and the murder rate at a 10-year high.

In October Mr Jamieson said his force needed £42.2m extra a year to bring in 500 extra officers in a desperate bid to tackle the crimewave.

The council tax rise of £24-a-year on a Band D property is now out for public consultation. It will bring the total policing precept to £152.55.

The Home Office says force's across England and Wales will get £970m additional funding over the next year to enable them to recruit more officers.

Ministers have hailed the settlement as the biggest increase in eight years. However, more than £500m of it will come from council tax increases.