South Wales Police Authority

 

South Wales Police Authority has had to cut its budget in real terms by 5.7% because of reductions in Government funding.  This would have been even deeper without an increase in the police element of council tax of 5%.

 

The 5% increase is equal to £7.68 extra per year for a Band D household, or 2p per day.  This means that the total amount a Band D household will pay is £161.35 per year, or 44p per day, for a 24 hour, seven days a week police service.

 

 

The cuts in public funding have been well publicised and the Government has announced cuts to South Wales Police’s funding of around £26m over the next four years – with £22m of these cuts falling in the firs two years.

 

We were already planning to reshape our services to the public to make them even more efficient and effective, but the scale and pace of these cuts means that we will need to save £15m next year, increasing to £22m in the following year (after adjusting for inflation).  This comes on top of £30m of savings achieved over recent years.

 

South Wales Police is a people based service.  80% of our budget is spent on police officers and staff, so there are limits to the savings which can be made without cutting the numbers of people who work for us.  Over the next year, we are planning to reduce our workforce by around 114 police officers and 167 police staff.

 

This is a difficult decision, but we have to balance the need to cut our expenditure and minimise the burden on tax payers.

 

 

The cuts in our budget mean that policing in South Wales will change.  We have put together a new model of how we will continue in our vision to be the best at understanding and responding to our communities needs.  This will see the public being placed at the centre of everything that we do.