Letter in response to the Police and Crime Commissioner

Following recent correspondence from the Police and Crime Commissioner, Chris Nelson, I, Alex McIntyre for Gloucester, and Simon Opher for Stroud have responded in a joint letter, set out in full below.

That correspondence related to proposals for increased police precept flexibility—which would be funded through higher council tax—and a one-off Home Office grant for IT systems.

At a time when residents across Gloucestershire continue to face cost-of-living pressures, we do not support increasing local taxation to address long-standing structural funding issues in policing. Instead, we are calling for these budgetary pressures to be addressed transparently and in partnership with central government.

We have written jointly to Sarah Jones MP and Chris Nelson PCC to set out our position, seek clarity on the proposals, and call for a more constructive and accountable approach that doesn’t default to increased local taxation.