PCC's budget unanimously approved
7th February 2024
Councillors unanimously approve the PCC’s budget
Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott has had his budget for 2024/25 approved by the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel. His proposal won unanimous cross-party support, and councillors agreed to back the PCC in lobbying the government for a fairer funding settlement in the future.
Today’s decision means the police precept of the council tax will rise by £13 a year, or 5.34% for an average Band D property. That’s £1.08 a month or 3.5 pence a day.
This will maintain the record number of police officers in the county. As well as supporting the New Neighbourhood Policing Model, which is seeing officers deployed to local communities and schools, the PCC has secured funding from the Home Office to deliver extra visible policing in antisocial behaviour and drug hotspots, to help drive crime down.
On top of this, a new “immediate justice” programme will be commissioned from October, which will see those committing antisocial behaviour forced to undertake some payback to the community within 48 hours.
The budget will also see investment to support improvements to digital forensics and for roads policing. Funding from Government will also help maintain Kent’s record number of police officers.
However, savings of around £7.3 million pounds still have to be found. These will be made by a reduction in staff roles, increasing the “vacancy factor”, making internal procurement savings and reviewing ranks and allowances. The current number of PCSOs will remain.
Matthew Scott said,
“I am grateful to the Panel for their unanimous support for my proposal. It is not an ask that I make lightly, but it is really important to help Kent Police maintain its record Officer numbers, protect our excellent call handling performance and reduce the impact of savings.
“In addition, we will see extra visible policing in our antisocial behaviour and drug hotspot locations and town centres, as a result of funding I have secured from the Government. Every district will benefit from this and will make our neighbourhoods safer.”
ENDS
Note to editors:
The key points from the 2024/25 budget and precept proposal from the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) are:
An increase in the precept of £13 a year, or 5.34% for a Band D property, equivalent to £1.08 a month or 3pm per day.
The police precept on council tax for an average Band D property will be £256.15.
The Kent PCC council tax precept remains the eighth lowest in the country.
The government’s funds Kent Police £262.5m, which includes maintaining the current number of police officers, pension allocations, specific hotspot policing and the specialist violence reduction unit.
For more details about Government funding and Kent Police Spending, please see this Leaflet here.
For a detailed look at how the budget is set please go to this page of our website: Setting the Kent Police budget (kent-pcc.gov.uk)