Police Funding 2025/2026

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 are all facing financial challenges with the cost of living and providing essential services, and the police are no different.

Police funding comes from a central government grant (75%) and what we can raise locally from the police precept part of the council tax (25%). The police precept we set, which funds Greater Manchester Police (GMP), is one of the lowest in the country.

This year, central government funding has provided a grant of £643.2million which is a 5.7% rise. This is welcome but is less than the 6% average for police areas nationally and does not fully account for national increases that we need to meet including national insurance contributions. There is therefore an expectation from the Home Office that funding will be raised through the precept.

To maintain the investment required for policing we would need to increase the police precept by £10.89 per year (91 pence a month) for a Band B property. This is a smaller increase than the increase in the precept last year.

With the help of what we raised through the precept last year, GMP remain one of the most improved police forces in the country. In 2024 GMP were recognised as world leaders in tackling stubborn crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), winning the international Goldstein Award for their problem-solving Operation Vulcan in Cheetham Hill. 

Through the modest increase in the police precept last year, the funding has allowed us to keep our promises to:

• Remain one of the best police forces in the country in the speed of answering 999 calls. In the past year the average time to answer a 999 call was 3 seconds, significantly better than the national average of 10 seconds.
• Improve 101 answering times. GMP answered non-emergency calls in an average of 54 seconds, compared to 1 minute and 9 seconds last year.
• Improve response times for emergency and non-emergency incidents. On average GMP responded to emergency incidents in 9 minutes and 44 seconds – faster than the 15-minute target time which is an improvement on last year of 3%. Non-emergency attendance times have improved to 66% within the hour target for attendance – up from 59% last year.
• Retain investment in neighbourhood policing and crime prevention teams and reduce neighbourhood crimes.  All districts have in place Neighbourhood Policing Teams, Prevention Hubs and Neighbourhood Crime Prevention Teams focussed on tackling crime and ASB. As a result, crime has reduced. This is most marked in neighbourhood crimes (personal robbery, domestic burglary, theft of vehicles and from the person) which reduced by 17.2% this year. GMP are also solving more crimes. Overall, the proportion of all crime outcomes that were solved increased to 12.5% (up 2.5% points on last year).
• Invest a further 30 police officers into Operation Vulcan which has now expanded beyond Cheetham Hill to Piccadilly Gardens and to Victoria and Piccadilly train stations.  Crime has reduced significantly in these areas as a result with theft from persons reducing by 35% and stalking and harassment by 56%.
• Focus on increasing arrests for sex offenders and ensuring justice for vulnerable victims. In the past year GMP continued to improve outcomes for victims of child sexual exploitation with outcomes up from 21.2% last year to 24.3% this year. GMP are also solving more rape crimes up 3% on last year.

GMP now have 8,151 police officers, still not at the level of a decade ago; this is coupled with significant growth in demand and increased complexity of crime. We are in negotiation with central government for further officers to strengthen our neighbourhood policing guarantee. But investment is still required to ensure GMP maintain the significant improvements in the service they are delivering and to be one of the best police forces in the country.

Your money really does make a difference. This year, we propose increasing the police precept by £10.89 per year (91 pence 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 by £14 per year (or £1.17 a month).

If we do not include a rise from 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 your support a £10.89 increase for a Band B property (or £14 for a Band D property) would lead to additional funding to enable GMP to deliver on the commitments that people told us were important in our new Standing Together: Police and Crime Plan. Over the next 12 months we will:

• Remain one of the best police forces in the country in the speed of answering 999 calls.
• Further improve 101 answering times.
• Further improve GMP response times with a focus on improving non-emergency times.
• Further reduce and prevent neighbourhood crimes, ASB and retail crime by investment in our prevention and neighbourhood policing teams.
• Improve road and transport safety by continuing with Operation Vulcan in Piccadilly and Victoria and expanding this out to key hotspot areas across the city region.
• In partnership with TfGM and others, launch a major programme across the Bee Network aimed at improving safety and people’s feeling of safety including the implementation of a dedicated Live Chat system.  
• Divert more children and young people away from crime by investing in liaison and diversion and preventative services.
• Bring more sex offenders to justice through investment in our sex offender management activity.
• Increase trust and confidence by investing in our Professional Standards Directorate.

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 for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire

What happens next

The feedback that has been collected during this consultation will be used to inform the Mayor and Deputy Mayor's decision about how much the public should contribute to police funding in 2025/26.