Surrey Police Authority rejects grant and increases precept (From Surrey Comet)

Surrey Police Authority rejects grant and increases precept

8:10am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in News By Louise Robertson

The body responsible for overseeing Surrey Police has agreed its budget and will increase its portion of council tax.

Surrey Police Authority has joined Surrey County Council in rejecting a one-off government grant in return for freezing council tax.

Instead, it will increase its part of the tax by 2.5 per cent.

For a band D household, that will equate to an increase from £198.54 to £203.49.

It is the last budget that will be set by the authority, which will be replaced by a police and crime commissioner following an election on November 15 this year.

The authority’s chairman Peter Williams said: “There was lengthy debate about whether or not to accept the Government’s council tax freeze offer this year.

“On the surface it may appear difficult to refuse, but this short-term Government incentive hides a serious long-term cost – unlike a council tax increase, which is built permanently into our funding, the council tax freeze grant is for one year only and on its removal would have left us with £2.5m less money in each subsequent year.

“Finding that amount of money – on top of next year’s Government funding cut – may have meant reductions in service or a steep increase in council tax.”

The gross budget for Surrey Police in 2012/13 will be £208.8m, a reduction of £3.5m from the 2011/12 budget.