Police forces will struggle to fund 13,000 recruits, top officers warn

Police forces will struggle to fulfil Keir Starmer's promise to recruit an additional 13,000 officers and the public will "pay the price", police leaders warned yesterday, after the chancellor outlined a decline in Home Office spending power yesterday.

- Rajeev Syal

The National Police Chiefs' Council said it would be "incredibly difficult" to deliver the prime minister's election pledge within the lifetime of this parliament, with a projected £1.2bn shortfall in police funding expected to grow.

The Police Federation said the consequences of the spending review were "deeply worrying" and it predicted cuts across the service.

In the spending review, billions were handed to the NHS and regional infrastructure projects by Rachel Reeves. The chancellor outlined plans for an average 2.3% rise in police spending per year, but the Home Office's spending will decline by 2.2% a year. Only two other departments will see a larger fall.

Norfolk's chief constable Paul Sanford, who is head of the finance coordination committee of the National Police Chiefs Council, said the 2.3% increase covered last year, leaving a 1.7% increase in funding for this spending review period.

"It will be incredibly difficult for the commitment to deliver the additional 13,000 neighbourhood police officers to be delivered within this funding envelope," he said.