Executive summary
The law says the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) must agree a budget, associated precept and basic council tax for the forthcoming year by 1 March.
However, before doing so, the PCC must notify the relevant Police and Crime Panel of the proposed precept for the following financial year. The PCC must do this by 31 January.
Worst funding settlement
The Provisional Police Settlement for 2026/27 has provided the PCC with the worst funding settlement in the country. This takes into account both funding from the Government and the amount which can be raised from the local precept.
After reflecting that some of the increase in funding reported by the Government this year refers to funding that covers last year’s pay award, and that both inflation and pay awards are above 3%, then the funding for policing in Cleveland has seen a real terms reduction in its funding from a year ago.
Funding has failed to keep pace with inflation and other funding has been removed and re-allocated elsewhere in the country. As a result, it is unfortunately not possible to maintain current levels of service. Difficult choices will be needed to balance the budget.
These difficult choices come despite the proposal to increase the precept by £15. Any increase below this level would lead to further reductions in service.
Flexibility to increase
The Government has provided PCCs with the flexibility to increase the police element of the council tax by £15. It has assumed these increases in the communication on overall levels of police funding.
Consultation has been undertaken across Cleveland in relation to the precept options. Across the consultation almost 57% of 1,223 respondents indicated that they would be willing to pay up to an additional £18 per year (or more) for policing in their area (for a Band D property).
The above response was broadly replicated across all four council areas. Support was above 50% in each area. This indicates a willingness to pay up to an additional £18 per year (or more).
Therefore, the organisational need for this increase and the resources that they will support, aligned with some significant support from the public for an increase of around £15, is why the PCC is asked to formally proposes a police precept of £332.73 for 2026/27 to the Police and Crime Panel.
This is an increase of 4.72% or £15 on a Band D property from 2025/26.
Decision 2025/26 – 027: Police Precept Proposal 2026-2027 (application, 150kB)