THE crime commissioner for Essex has warned of further redundancies at Essex Police if the Government insists the force recruit more police officers without providing extra funding reports the Local Democracy Reporter.
Roger Hirst, Police, Fire, and Crime Commissioner for Essex, has warned that Essex Police is facing a worst-case scenario of a £14 million deficit in 2026/27 if it only increases its police precept for Essex taxpayers by 2.5 per cent.
Mr Hirst said he was currently going through various scenarios – one of which includes facing a deficit of £9.2 million, which could only be achieved with a £14 increase (or a 5.36 per cent increase) in the precept, which is included in council tax payments.
He said the force will have a clearer picture of what is expected of them from the Government around the middle of December. However, he warned there was potential for unfunded pressure if the government wants to stick to its commitment of adding an additional 13,000 officers, police constables, and specials by the end of the parliament.
This could result in further cuts to backroom staff. Essex Police have already made cuts to backroom staff this year, with as many as 65 redundancies, partly due to the closing of station front desks at four locations across the county.
Mr Hirst said: “It looks like we’re going to be really squeezed, and that’s where you get the worst case deficit from. Which makes it look like we’re really going to have to struggle and find quite substantial savings from elsewhere.
“The question I have to answer is if I do that should I be doing the maximum on council tax to make sure we have the maximum number of people or is that the government creating a problem for us and if we’re going to have to make cuts we may as well make cuts and I need to make sure the council tax isn’t increased by more than inflation.”
Mr Hirst said increasing the precept by the maximum of £14 would still not cover the gap, he warned.
He said: “It wouldn’t cover all of that gap. That’s the point. I’d be raising the council tax and still making police staff redundant. I hope we don’t end up there. There is still plenty of negotiation to be done before the middle of December.
“It depends on what is being asked of us. If they are asking us to hire more police officers, but are not fully funding it, we end up with that deficit and having to make savings elsewhere.”
Earlier in the year, Essex Police managed to squeeze an extra £2.3 million from the Government—enough to save 99 police community support officers (PCSOs) from redundancy. However, the force did cut 65 backroom staff roles, and 74 officers were reprioritised into dedicated neighbourhood teams.”
Blah blah blah from him. He came into our office and told us what a great job we were doing and shortly after we all got made redundant. A business decision we know but getting rid of experienced staff who support officers is a backwards move. They will reinvent the wheel as they always do and seek to employ staff again having lost all the experience we had. Some of us have not found other jobs. I am happy he is losing his job.