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by Lib Dem team on 27 March, 2010
The Local Government Minister, Barbara Follett has announced that she is to take action against Greater Manchester Police Authority for setting, in the Government’s view, an excessive budget for 2010-11. Greater Manchester Police set a precept equating to 7.5% on a Band D property.
The Government is minded to place a ‘cap’ on the Authority’s 2011-12 budget at a level that will equate to a 4.5% increase in each of the years 2010-11 and 2011-12. This means that authorities will not be required to rebill council tax payers in 2010-11.
The authority has 21 days to challenge the Minister’s decision. A copy of the Ministerial statement announcing this decision can be found by clicking here.
Our Council Tax bills include a portion for the police, and for the fire service, separate to the local authority funds.
3 Comments
The extortionate fee’s that GMP charge for event promoters simply for their events to go ahead is pure extortion too… they are beginning to act like a protection racket. Refusing to let live music or club events to go ahead unless they pay £100 per hour plus for two police officers.
Iain,those of us on an income or pension are governed by inflation; so should GMP. They will never budget realistically if they know they can ride roughshod over financial limits. Well done Barbara Follett!!!
I tend to agree, Alan. I certainly wasn’t criticising the capping proposal.
One point I’d make is that the rate of inflation is different for different organisations, depending on how they spend their money. If, for example, you spend most of your money on petrol, you’ll be paying 50% more for the same amount, so you’ll have experienced 50% inflation. The RPI is just an average inflation rate for a typical person – your and my inflation rate might be quite different, depending on how we spend our money.
I’ve absolutely no idea what inflation rate the police see in their own spending, but I wouldn’t assume it’s necessarily the same as the RPI.