Reading to lose more than half of its community safety funding

Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Matthew Barber has announced new Community Safety Fund allocations, which will see Slough and Reading lose a significant chunk of their funding over the next three years.

Reading will lose 52 per cent of its community safety funding by 2024, with the PCC implementing a gradual reduction over the next three years for the town.

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Slough is the other local authority area which will lose out, getting 40 per cent less by 2024.

The local authorities that will benefit the most are Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

Allocations were confirmed by Mr Barber at a Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel on Friday, September 10.

The change to allocations, which sees Buckinghamshire gain more than £100,000 over the next three years and Reading lose almost £240,000 over the same period, can be seen in the table below.

PICTURED: Community safety funding allocations

Reading councillor Adele Barnett-Ward accused the Conservative PCC of favouring local authorities under Tory control, suggesting the funding is “greared towards the PCC’s voter base”.

But Mr Barber rejected the accusation and said he “took offence” at the suggestion.

He said “two of the biggest winners” are Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire, which are not Conservative-run.

Mr Barber added: “This is a significant change which is why that is factored in with the gradual reduction of the three-year period.”

Cllr Barnett-Ward questioned Mr Barber on what schemes he felt Slough and Reading should cut from their budget due to the slashed funding.

But Mr Barber said he did not think these areas would lose out.

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He said the PCC office will continue to support Reading and Slough with significant funding as well as “in-kind support”, while there will be other opportunities for these areas to get funding.

The new allocation of the funding is calculated based on population, recorded crime and non-crime incidents.

According to Mr Barber, who believes the new allocations will be fairer, Reading and Slough as local authorities have “benefited hugely as authorities since this funding was put in place” by around £1-2 million.

Mr Barber said Oxfordshire has largest number of recorded crimes but that had not been reflected in the current allocation.

He said the three-year allocation, as opposed to previous one-year allocations, would give more certainty to local authorities and allow for more long-term projects, adding that “there was never any guarantee of this funding”.

The PCC said the funding is not 100 per cent guaranteed but said he is “confident we will be able to fund this for three years”.