Decision details

The Mayor in their capacity as Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has a statutory duty and electoral mandate to ensure an efficient and effective police service and to hold the police to account on behalf of the public.

The Mayor is the recipient of funding relating to policing and crime reduction, including government grants, the council tax precept and other sources of income. How this money is allocated is a matter for the Mayor in consultation with the Chief Constable, or in accordance with any grant terms.

The provisions of Section 32 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 require the Mayor to set a balanced PCC budget.

In addition, Section 26 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 establishes the PCC as a precepting authority for the purposes of the 1992 Act. Which means the PCC decides how much local people pay for policing through their council tax. The Mayor exercises this function through the GMCA as the precepting authority for Greater Manchester.

In the 2023/24 government settlement the Home Secretary announced a maximum police precept increase of £15 per year for a Band D property.

In accordance with Part 2 of the Police and Crime Panels (Precepts and Chief Constable Appointments) Regulations 2012 an initial Mayoral PCC precept proposal of £15 was submitted to the Police and Crime Panel on 26 January 2023.

The 2023/24 provisional settlement for Police was received from the Government on 14 December 2022. This included an increase in the Police Core Grant of 1.8% to meet the cost of final recruitment for the Police Uplift Programme (PUP) of 20,000 additional police officers, the police pay award and pressures such as inflation and energy and fuel costs.
The Government has given Police and Crime Commissioners the ability to raise the police element of council tax by up to £1.25 a month – £15 a year for an average Band D property and 83 pence a month - £10 a year for an average Band A property. Band A contains 45% of households out of all council tax bands in Greater Manchester.

Even with a £15 precept increase the 2023/24 police budget will require the delivery of significant efficiencies to manage inflationary pressures, whilst continuing to deliver improvements. Funding below that level would risk efficiencies becoming service cuts and threaten the progress that GMP is making, in areas such as Force Contact Centre (call handling) and Neighbourhood Policing.

A consultation was carried out via an online survey, hosted on www.gmconsult.org. The consultation was open from 11 January to 25 January 2023 and was widely publicised in the local press, on social media and via GMCA newsletters. A total of 417 responses were received, from this 38.2% supported a precept increase of £15 per year or more and 61.8% did not support an increase in the precept. The majority (73.4%) of respondents supported priorities of providing Neighbourhood Crime Teams, sustaining and improving call handling times and strengthening investigative capacity and capability. All qualitative responses received are available on our consultation platform, GM Consult.

Following the consultation, a precept increase of £15 to the current band D precept was proposed at the meeting of the Police, Crime and Fire Panel on 26th January 2023 and supported. This means that I am determining my Band D Mayoral PCC precept to be £243.30.

• The 2023/24 Mayoral Police and Crime Commissioner precept is set at £243.30 for a Band D property.
• Issues an appropriate overall precept requirement of £192,957,408 on the ten billing authorities in the Greater Manchester area, to be incorporated as part of the Council Tax for the purposes of Police and Crime for the financial year beginning 1 April 2023 and ending 31 March 2024 (Appendix 1).
• The 2023/24 Police Fund revenue budget of £742.088m is approved.
• The 2023/24 Police Fund capital budget of £37.474m is approved.
• Note that the borrowing requirement is £35.101m for 2023/24.

The decision to increase the precept by £15 was not taken lightly due to the impact it has on local taxpayers. Coupled with further efficiency savings, and along with the central Government grant, an increase in precept of £15 a year will provide the funding to sustain the improvements already achieved over the past year and deliver the following additional benefits:

• The establishment of dedicated Neighbourhood Crime Teams on each district to more effectively and proactively tackle the issues that the public told us are important to them, in the consultation undertaken by GMP last year. Their priorities will include burglary, robbery, vehicle crime and other issues set in each local area.
• The workforce level required to ensure that the significant improvements in 999 and 101 waiting times are maintained and further improved, particularly in respect of 101.
• Increased capacity and capability of crime scene investigators and digital investigators strengthening opportunities to detect neighbourhood crime and sex offending, including such offences against children in particular.
• Increased numbers of investigators who conduct initial investigations when a crime is first reported, to ensure more timely and effective investigations into offences that have a big impact on our communities like criminal damage and hate crime.

Following this increase the Greater Manchester police and crime precept will remain one of the 10 lowest out of the 42 police and crime areas of England. It is important to note that Greater Manchester is more dependent than other areas on changes to Government grant funding due to the lower council tax base in the region. The nationally £15 maximum increase will therefore raise significantly less funds for GM per head of population than in many other areas of the country.