Panel vetoes police commissioner's budget plans

Leicestershire and Rutland's police and crime commissioner (PCC) Rupert Matthews has had his budget plans rejected by a scrutiny panel.

The country's only Reform UK PCC presented proposals to raise Leicestershire Police's share of council tax by £11 from April to a police and crime panel on Wednesday.

His proposal led to a public rift with temporary Chief Constable David Sandall, who argued not raising the precept to the maximum £15 allowable under capping rules would leave the force without the resources it needed to keep the public safe.

After Matthews and Sandall made rival cases for increases to the force's 2026/27 budget, the cross-party panel voted unanimously to veto the PCC's plan.

The panel concluded Matthews' proposed budget would leave the force unable to keep the public safe.

Matthews now has to reconsider his proposals and present new ones to the panel later in February.

Sandall said not increasing the precept by the maximum amount would leave the force with a budget shortfall of £4.7m in the coming financial year, and rising each year after.

"The position today is there is £4.7m less than is required to sustain the current level of service to the public," he said.

He warned that could lead to "resource reductions and redundancies" and that it was his statutory duty to raise his concerns.

He told the panel the £4 difference in precepts was the equivalent of 30 new police officers.

He also said he believed Leicestershire Police would be the only force in England not getting the maximum increase of £15 for a band D property.

Sandall warned a reduction in resources could also impact on 999 call response times and the force's ability to deal with complex crimes.

Sandall said he understood people did not want to pay more tax but over four years his force would lose £16.4m - the cost of 350 officers.

Matthews told the panel the decision to not ask council tax payers for the maximum amount had not been taken lightly.

He added that he had not been convinced by the Chief Constable's own budget plans.

During the panel meeting, Reform UK Leicestershire County Council leader Dan Harrison said Matthews' budget had made him angry and that the commissioner had behaved in a "most unworthy way".

After the meeting, Matthews said: "It is ironic that my proposal not to impose the highest possible tax on local residents has been vetoed by those elected to represent them.

"To make it quite clear: the budget has not been cut. I allocated a 5% increase to Leicestershire Police, which equates to £13.5m more funding than last year.

"The deficit mentioned is down to £1.2m in the coming year from a budget of nearly £300m.

"I have every confidence that the Chief Constable and his team can achieve that without undue challenge.

"I will not just take the highest amount simply because I can.

"There is already enough pressure on households up and down the country.

We need to reset the approach to taxation, and take what we must have, not what large public corporations would like to have.

"We will now revisit our spreadsheets and return with our revised figures on 12 February."

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