Surrey Police’s share of council tax bills will jump past £300 a year for Band D homeowners for the first time.

Lisa Townsend, Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner, told the committee into the force’s annual budget that a 5.07 per cent hike was needed to protect residents and to stop the “suffering” felt when numbers are cut.

She told the Surrey Police and Crime Panel that the force’s vehicle fuel bill alone had skyrocketed by over half a million pounds and that the extra officers taken on in Surrey, as part of the government’s overall push to recruit 20,000 nationwide, was only just covered by the 1.8 per cent increase in central funding. 

She told the hearing: “We are very pleased about this but they do provide added financial pressures.”

Police and Crime commissioners across the country made representations to the government about the half a billion shortfall in police funding, she said, but  were told to raise the maximum annual increase to £15 rather than expect any further funding.

Commissioner Townsend spoke of the force’s savings track record – where £80 million in cuts had been made over 10 years but that “it gets harder to make further spending cuts.”

She said: “We are looking to deliver more savings but of course it gets harder the more savings we have to deliver.

“Any reduction does cause us quite serious problems. My issue isn’t that it causes the police problem, my concern is it causes all our residents problems. All of our constituents suffer when policing is cut.

“Police staff are the people who would really suffer, police staff form the backbone of our police force and all the work they are able to do out in our communities and serving our most vulnerable.

“Working in intelligence, call handling – that first experience people have with the police when they have to call 111 or 999,  forensics, custody, investigations, there are a whole slew of police staff who do those jobs.”

She added: “There is only so much that I can do as PCC, I do not have any operational control. The best I can do is give our new chief constable the best possible tools to be able to deliver the best possible police force.

“Taking all that into account I see little choice, rather regretfully, of proposing a precept increase of £15 on a Band D property.”

The meeting heard of how staff vacancies had grown despite last year’s £10 increase. Currently there are about 250 unfilled roles which, about 12 per cent of all positions within Surrey Police. This additional increase, they said, was to ensure the long-term viability of being able to recruit those vacancies.

The panel voted eight in favour, two against with no abstentions on the proposed precept hike – the equivalent of £295.57 a year to £310.57 a year for Band D homes.

Chris Caulfield

Local Democracy Reporter