Legislation requires that the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) agrees their budget and associated precept and basic council tax for the forthcoming year before 1st March each year.
However, before doing so the PCC must notify the relevant Police and Crime Panel, by the 31st January, of the precept which they propose to issue for the following financial year.
The Police Settlement for 2025/26 has provided the PCC with an increase in Core Government Funding of £7,362k, or 5.7%.
Unfortunately, all of this funding increase is either specifically linked to expenditure or linked to decisions already made nationally, as per the below:
- £4,065k more has been provided in additional core grant to cover the costs of last year’s pay award plus to maintain Police Officer numbers.
- £2,418k has been provided to meet increases in National Insurance Contributions which are expected to total around £3,000k
- £51k less has been provided to ensure Police Officer numbers are maintained at 1,513.
- £269k less has been provided to pay for higher Employer’s contributions into the Police Officer Pension Scheme.
- £1,199k has been provided and ringfenced for the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
The Government have also provided PCCs with the flexibility to increase the Police element of the council tax by £14 and have assumed these increases in the communication on overall levels of Police funding.
Given the shortfall in some funding streams, such as National Insurance, and other costs and pressures that need to be managed, even the proposed £14 increase is not sufficient to maintain a ‘standstill’ budget and difficult decisions have had to be made to balance the budget.
Consultation with the public of Cleveland indicated strong support for a precept increase with 55% indicating that would be willing to pay £14 or more per year.
Decision
The PCC is asked to agree that an increase in the precept for 2025/26 of £14, or 4.61%, from the level set in 2024/25, be proposed to the Police and Crime Panel for their consideration. In doing so the Band D level of Precept for Policing within Cleveland would increase by £14 from £303.73 per annum to £317.73.
Decision Record Form 2024/25 – 0021: Police Precept Proposal 2025-26 (application, 189kB)
Precept 2025-26 Report to the Police and Crime Panel (application, 464kB)