Police Funding 2026/2027

Overview

Dear Greater Manchester residents and businesses

It is our priority to keep the people of Greater Manchester safe and we cannot do this without your help, as local taxpayers.

We all continue to face financial challenges with the cost of living and providing essential services, and the police are no different.

Police funding comes from an annual central government grant and what we can raise locally from the police precept part of council tax. In Greater Manchester, the government grant represents 74% of funding for Greater Manchester Police (GMP), and the police precept we set makes up 26%. Our police precept in Greater Manchester is one of the lowest in the country.

This year, the central government grant is due to increase by 2.6% from the previous year (to £666 million).

This is the second lowest increase of any police force in the country and compares to a national average increase of 3.2% and increases of 4% in London, 4.2% in Kent and 3.6% in Merseyside.

It also comes in the context of the serious and critical incidents and their associated costs here being higher than in most other areas of the country. The Metropolitan Police Service in London receives an additional Capital Cities Grant to help them meet their higher costs from this; in Greater Manchester we do not receive this.

We are currently in discussions with the Government calling for the national funding for our police service to be brought up to a fairer level.

It is our responsibility to maintain an effective, efficient police force for Greater Manchester. The service’s frontline is growing to address significant growth in demand and increased complexity of crime. By March 2026 Greater Manchester Police will have at least 8,271 officers, including an additional 120 officers under the Government’s neighbourhood policing guarantee. It has also made significant back-office efficiencies, making it lean and effective.

But to maintain the investment required for policing to protect the public, we need to increase the police precept by £11.66 per year (£0.97 a month) for a Band B property (80% of households in Greater Manchester are in Bands A-C). For a Band D property, the increase would be £15 per year (£1.25 a month).

Thanks to previous increases in our police precept, Greater Manchester Police has remained a well performing police force. In the past year, burglary has reduced by 21%, robbery by 16% and knife crime by 13%. There have also been clear reductions in serious violence, vehicle offences and serious and organised crime. We have kept our promises to:

• Reduce and prevent neighbourhood crimes, antisocial behaviour (ASB) and retail crime by investment in our prevention and neighbourhood policing teams. Neighbourhood crime has continued to fall significantly, by 15% since 2024/25. Retail crime has fallen by 8%.
• Increase trust and confidence. 65% of people were confident they could get help from GMP in an emergency compared to 61% in the previous year.
• Improve road and transport safety by continuing with Operation Vulcan in Piccadilly and Victoria and expanding this out to key hotspots. This year we have seen a 41% reduction in violent crime in the Operation Vulcan sites.
• In partnership with TfGM launch a major programme across the Bee Network to improve safety and people’s feeling of safety, including the implementation of a dedicated Travel Safe Live Chat system. 
• Divert more children and young people away from crime by investing in diversion and preventative services. In 2025, there was a 50% increase in diversionary activity and support services for children and young people who’d been arrested.  
• Remain one of the best police forces in answering 999 and 101 calls.  In 2025, 999 calls were answered in an average of 4 seconds compared to the national average of 8 seconds. For 101 the average was 1 minute and 5 seconds.
• Improve response times.  GMP are now responding to 95% of emergencies in 15 minutes (91% last year) and 76% of non-emergencies within the hour (65% last year).

The precept money we raise really does make a difference.

If we do not provide this funding through the police precept, then we will have to look at other ways to close the gap in funding and this could mean cuts to the service that you receive.

With the support of the precept this year, we will:

• Further reduce neighbourhood crimes and ASB by investing in neighbourhood police officers.
• Expand hot spot policing tactics in town centres and other key locations to help drive down theft from person, violent crime and retail crime.
• Increase safety and police visibility in Piccadilly Gardens including a new police hub.
• Expand Operation Vulcan to another three sites to shift stubborn crime issues in neighbourhoods and reduce violent crime.
• Increase our coverage of ANPR camera technology (as backed by the public during a recent consultation) by transferring usage of the Clean Air Zone Cameras to GMP for crime prevention and detection.
• Bring more sex offenders and domestic abuse perpetrators to justice.
• Deliver a new Hate Crime Standard to encourage more people to come forward and report.
• Retain our good performance for speed of answering 999 and 101 calls and for responding to emergency and non-emergency incidents.

Together and with your help, we aim to continue GMP’s positive journey and deliver to you the most effective police service in the UK.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester and Kate Green, Deputy Mayor Safer and Stronger Communities