PCC election focused on police funding formula

Bedfordshire Police is one of the lowest funded forces in the UK

Bedfordshire Police has come on after it was ranked as one of the worst forces in the UK.

In its latest police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) report, it was rated as "good" in five out of 10 areas forces are marked on, and "outstanding" for the way it managed offenders.

However, it is still one of the lowest-funded forces in the UK - despite a £10m year-on-year increase to £156m for 2024-25.

If elected on 2 May, the four police and crime commissioner (PCC) candidates shared what they would do to rectify this.

The commissioner's role is to hold local police force to account and the job holder would appoint the chief constable (in the event of a vacancy), set its budget and decide how much council tax precept to charge residents.

Police funding comes from a government grant and also from a portion of the council tax paid each year.

Bedfordshire Police received £95.5m from the government and £61.1m from the council tax precept for the 2024-25 financial year.

Conservative Festus Akinbusoye has "lobbied the government for a solution" since being elected in 2021

Conservative Festus Akinbusoye is the PCC for Bedfordshire and said he had "lobbied the government for a solution" since being elected in May 2021.

He blamed "Labour’s police funding formula of over 20 years ago" for treating the county like a rural area, when he claimed it had "the type of demands found in major cities".

He said "successive governments, including the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition, have not addressed this".

He added: "I am pleased to have secured nearly £15m of additional Special Grant funding for Bedfordshire Police, resulting in annual record seizures of illegal drugs valued at £4.3m in 2023, hundreds of firearms and knives recovered, and over 400 years of prison sentences for dangerous organised criminal gangs."

He also said Bedfordshire had "the 11th lowest crime rate in the country and the highest ever number of police officers".

Labour's John Tizard said Bedfordshire was funded as if it were a rural police service, which was "ridiculous"

Labour's candidate John Tizard said it was "ridiculous" that Bedfordshire was funded like a rural police service. He felts towns like Luton have "characteristics of a metropolitan borough" and pointed to the international airport in the town as having an impact too.

He blamed the Conservative government for underfunding the force and said "from 2010, like almost every public service, it has been a victim of austerity, reducing its number of police officers".

"We need a funding formula that ensures we get our fair share of government finance. We cannot rely on annual one-off grants nor expect local council taxpayers to plug the gap," he added.

He said, if elected, he would "partner with all the county’s MPs of all political parties and the three unitary councils to lobby the Home Office for fair funding".

He said if he wins on 2 May and Labour formed the next government, he "would be first in the queue to put the case to Labour’s home secretary for more funding and for a good share of the additional 13,000 new police officers and PCSOs that Labour will fund".

Lib Dem Jasbir Singh Parmar said previous commissioners have left "empty police stations" in Bedfordshire

Jasbir Singh Parmar is standing for the Liberal Democrats and has had front-line policing experience with the Met.

He said the force had been underfunded and felt "nothing has changed over years".

He added that "any increase in police numbers has barely kept pace with population growth in Bedfordshire".

He blamed previous commissioners for "empty police stations and cop shops" which he said "have had no success except a massive council tax burden on the public and one-off grants".

He added: "It isn’t fair that people in Bedfordshire are left paying more tax every year than the rest of the country for the same service".

If elected he said he would "petition the home secretary, go to Parliament, lobby and campaign relentlessly - including through our local MPs but also direct to government and civil servants - to get this historic underfunding overturned".

Workers Party of Britain candidate, Waheed Akbar, said he would try to fix funding issues

Waheed Akbar is the Workers Party of Britain candidate.

He told the BBC that "he couldn't fix the funding issue, but if elected, would try".

He explained that to sort the problem out it would involve "working with stakeholders across Bedfordshire, including the community, local politicians and the police, to work on priorities, to ensure resources are used prudently".

He added that the next step after that would be to "make the case to central government to challenge the formula for funding".

He described the funding settlement as "very complex" but hoped to look at the precept from council tax and explore how to "get funding from our own sources as well".