PCC Responds to Announcement on Rise in Interest Rates
The Bank of England has announced today that interest rates are to rise by half a percent to 1.75%. Inflation is expected to peak later this year at 13.4% and the economy is facing five consecutive months of recession.
Dr Alan Billings, the PCC, has reacted to the news, saying: “The latest figures from the Bank of England make for dismal reading. They suggest that the government has lost control of the economy. This has consequences for public services, including policing.
“It will make it harder to balance the books this year and next. For some time it has been government policy to shift more of the burden of paying for policing from government grant to council tax.
“But next year, according to the latest figures, council tax payers will be facing inflation in double figures while mortgages are expected to rise by an average of £650 per annum for an average tracker mortgage.
“We need the government to understand that we cannot make up locally through council tax for the mistakes they have made nationally by letting inflation run away to such an extent.
“I am beginning to look at the budget for policing for the year April 2023 to March 2024 and realise that there are limits to what people can be expected to contribute locally.”