Council tax to increase by £5

TONY LLOYD

COUNCIL tax will rise by an average of an extra £5 as Greater Manchester's Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner looks to protect policing and maintain officer numbers despite cuts.

After GMP lost £5.7 million funding from the government this year, Tony Lloyd confirmed his budget for 2017-18 and said he had no other option but to raise the policing element of council tax.

The loss sees GMP having to save £14m this year and £44m by 2020 and the rise (£5 to the average band D property) will bring an additional £3.5m, the equivalent of maintaining 70 police officers.

Tony Lloyd said that despite GMP having their funding slashed in 2017 the recruitment drive that began last year, with hundreds of new officers joining the force, will continue. Last year, for the first time in five years, GMP began recruiting to help shore-up the service, including 200 directly recruited from Greater Manchester's communities.

100 of those, recruited in the summer, have now been sworn in and over a third of the more recent 100 who have started training are from black and ethnic minorities.

The investment announced by Tony Lloyd allows GMP to keep officer numbers at around 6,300. In 2010 there were around 8,000 officers.

The budget will also see funding to local authority Community Safety Partnerships and voluntary and community groups as well as the co-design of a new service which will act as a gateway for all victims of crime.

Tony Lloyd said: "This is still a cuts budget. The government's continued failure to safeguard police funding has left me with no choice but to increase the policing element of council tax by an average of £5 a year.

"I do this reluctantly as I understand the financial pressures local families are facing and both I and the Chief Constable are committed to investing this money in the frontline and keeping as many officers as possible on our streets.

He said: "Greater Manchester is a proudly diverse region. It's common sense that our police service is reflective of this, and is able to understand the communities it serves.

"Last year, I was able to support the Chief Constable in beginning recruitment on a scale we haven't seen in five years, giving us an opportunity to bring in fresh ideas and diversity to the workforce.

"I'm pleased to see that of the 100 new recruits from local communities; more than a third are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds."

He said: "The budget will help to boost this recruitment, giving more local people the opportunity to get into policing."