A police and crime commissioner (PCC) has slammed a £2mn sum handed to Cleveland Police from the government. Labour’s Matt Storey said it was “insulting” to think that a “performative” £2mn is enough to cover “anything, really”, but added that it would be spent efficiently.
The PCC also told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that “up to” 600 additional officers have “come to help” in the Cleveland force area, which he says “shows the gap” that the force has “in terms of officers we do need” on a permanent basis. It has previously been reported that more than 200 officers had been drafted into the region from elsewhere.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Tuesday, 1 September that £2mn would be heading Cleveland’s way, to tackle serious crime in the area, following recent incidents, including a fatal crash on the A66 that left seven dead, including two police officers. Storey initially said the money wouldn’t begin to address the “chronic underfunding” of Cleveland Police.
While in the House of Commons on Tuesday, responding to a question from Labour MP Luke Myer, Mahmood said: “The move to a new structure for policing in this country provides the best opportunity to relook at funding.”
Storey has since issued further remarks, saying the police force mergers that Mahmood discussed aren’t expected to happen until 2034.
Storey said: “Cleveland Police can’t afford to wait eight years with an unsustainable funding model – the funding formula has to change now, and it can be changed now, if the government had the political will to do it.
“They’ve made a determination not to, and that it has to wait until the reform agenda is delivered. But we can’t afford to wait in Cleveland. We get the worst settlement of any force in the country and the settlement formula is not based on deprivation, poverty or crime rates.”
He said the force was still 220 officers short of where it was in 2010, contrasting this to a 20% officer increase in some police forces in south east England over the same period. He said if Cleveland Police was to be funded “effectively”, then there would be an expectation of an additional 500-600 officers.
He told LDRS that Cleveland Police is of the belief that it needs £26mn recurring, year on year, to make up for what it lost over the “austerity years”.
On the additional hundreds of officers who have been sent to Cleveland from elsewhere in the country, he said: “The understanding that we have is that they can be here for as long as we need them.” He said it was likely that some of the £2mn will need to be used to reimburse other forces, saying: “We are tremendously grateful for the support that’s been given.” The PCC added: “It’s up to, I think, 600 officers now who’ve come to help and that really shows the gap that we have in terms of officers we do need.”
The Home Office was contacted for comment and specifically asked whether the funding formula for police forces would be reviewed prior to wider reorganisation and mergers of police forces in England. No answer was received at the time of writing.
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