West Midlands keeps being ‘ripped off and short changed’ in funding battle say police bosses

West Midlands Police and Crime Panel backed a proposal to increase the the force’s part of people’s council tax bills by £15 per year for 2026/27.

This means people in Band D properties will see their annual bills go up to £244.50 for the coming year.

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But Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said the funding formula used to decide their grant settlement from the Government was outdated and meant the force loses out on £43 million per year – the equivalent of 800 officers.

A report to the panel said the formula used contains data from 2013 and doesn’t factor in issues such as new crime types and increases in population.

West Midlands Police’s overall budget for the coming year is £658.5m, which is an increase of £20.6m on the 2025/26 Settlement.

But the report added this extra money will not cover the £33.6 million increase in pay for police officers.

Panel chair Councillor Suky Samra said: “We always hear about the disparity of the funding formula and next year we could possibly be in the same place where you want the maximum precept.

“How can you assure the panel you are making those representations so that funding formula may change one day and West Midlands Police will have a fair budget?”

Mr Foster said: “I have been calling for, campaigning for, engaging in constant and unremitting action for reform of the national police funding formula for about the last five years.

“Unfortunately, although the previous government committed to doing so, it spent 10 years pledging to do so but failed to reach even a consultation point in order to proceed with that let alone implement it.

“We now have a commitment in the current Government’s white paper that they will now reconsider the funding formula in 2034.

“The net outcome of that is West Midlands Police, on that timescale, will have continued with an unfit for purpose funding formula that has meant West Midlands Police has been short changed and ripped off for about 20 years.

“We are a significant loser in that funding formula. We lose out to the tune of about £43 million every year – the equivalent of 800 police officers.

“It’s the reason why we still have around 520 fewer police officers than we had back in 2010, notwithstanding the vast majority of police forces around the country have as many as they had in 2010 if not more than they’ve ever had in their history.

“It’s wholly unfair that we continue to be ripped off and short changed when it comes to fair allocation of police resources and I will continue to return to this issue very regularly indeed.”