Labour to strike yet again by hiking taxes by tens of millions – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com

Under Labour’s policing plans council tax will skyrocket by an eyewatering £329.8 million and despite Starmer pledging not to hit peoples pay packets, families will end up paying.

On Tuesday the Home Office has confirmed that they will be providing police forces across the country with £986.9 million extra in 2025 and they are vowing this will bolster neighbourhood patrols.

A third of this money will be funded by increasing council tax to £14 per household, meaning the household bill will soar by £329.8 million.

The Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson has said that £230 million out of the £9869 million will be spent on the Chancellor’s employer’s National Insurance Contributions increase.

The police watchdog Andy Cook said, “The police funding formula is an anachronism. It’s not been updated for a long time.

What it results in, because there is such a reliance on council tax now, (is) the richer police forces get richer, the poorer police forces get poorer.

“So those who can’t raise as much on council tax, which is usually but not in totality the inner-city areas – Cleveland, Merseyside, Manchester, West Midlands – don’t have that housing stock that pays big money.

“In order to address some of the issues the government would like to address in relation to knife crime, violence against women and girls, the bulk of those occur in the inner-city areas where you’ve got less resources.

“There are numerous financial issues, but there have been the same issues for many years because the police funding formula hasn’t been properly addressed and doesn’t fairly allocate resources.”

Dame Johnson told MPs in the House of Commons that by police forces only having a one year funding settlement it makes if harder for them to plan ahead, she added, “strikes the balance between protecting taxpayers and providing funding for police forces.”

She told MPs the settlement for 2025 and 2026 will amount to £17.4 billion, this is an overall rise of £986.9 million for the current year.

The extra funding of £230.3 million increase will cover pay rises and the employer’s NIC.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Today’s settlement provides a substantial increase in funding for policing to help deliver on this government’s Safer Streets mission.

“This vital funding boost will enable forces to kickstart the recruitment of neighbourhood police officers and crack down on the crimes blighting our high streets and town centres.

“We recognise the financial and operational challenges that police forces across the country have faced in recent years, and that is why we are providing a significant and much-needed increase in funding to help forces protect the public and keep our streets safe.

“We will also work closely with forces at a national and regional level to maximise efficiency and innovation, so that every penny they receive goes as far as possible and provides real value for the public.”

Dame Diana said: “Of the £986.9 million of additional funding for police forces, I can confirm that £657.1 million of this is an increase to government grants, which includes an increase in the core grants of £339 million to ensure police forces are fully equipped to deliver our safer streets mission.

This also includes £230.3 million to compensate territorial forces for the costs of the change to the employer national insurance contributions from 2025-26, and an additional £100 million to kickstart the first phase of 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles.

“This will provide policing with the funding required to tackle crime and keep communities safe.”