The Government has today announced the police grant settlement for 2022/23. This is the amount each police force receives from the total funding for policing set out in the Spending Review by the chancellor at the time of the budget.

Dr Alan Billings, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire has expressed serious concern about the level of funding.

Details of the settlement were laid before the House of Commons by the Home Secretary, the Right Hon Priti Patel MP.

The amount each police force receives varies and makes a significant difference in different police force areas.

The grant provides about 75% of police funding for South Yorkshire. The remainder comes from council tax.

The settlement announced today provides an increase of around 5.8% for police forces as a whole across the country if police and crime commissioners set the precept at the maximum allowed, £10 per annum increase (on Band D properties).

Dr Billings said: “While I welcome the government’s commitment to increase funding to pay for more officers, the grant for South Yorkshire will, in the medium term, leave us short of what we need to pay for them as well as to continue with normal business and meet the costs of inflation – which is starting to go up quite steeply.

“Whilst the Government has committed to uplifting the number of police officers, it has not committed to providing the total necessary level of funding and these costs will have to be met locally from council tax.

“The Government assumes that all PCCs will meet any gaps in funding by raising council tax by £10 on a Band D property.

“But the ability of people to pay varies across the country and in South Yorkshire we have many families who are struggling financially.

“One thing I am clear about is that we must have a police force that has the capability and capacity to get on top of crime and anti-social behaviour and that mean it must be adequately funded.

“Over the next few weeks I will be working with the Chief Constable to see where savings can be made and I will be consulting with people on how much they are willing to pay for the police service.”