Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold has responsibility for setting the budget for Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service. Police and fire funding is made up of a mixture of government grants and money from local taxpayers.
Just 18% of the council tax you pay in Northamptonshire comes to the PFCC to pay for policing and fire services: the rest of the council tax you pay goes to your local authorities.
Northamptonshire is one of the fastest-growing places in the country and our population has increased much more than the national average, but government funding for police and fire services has not kept pace with this change.
Set in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing population and a financial settlement that will not meet the costs of inflation, this year’s budget is likely to be more challenging than ever.
After listening to local people, the Commissioner recently updated the Police, Fire and Crime Plan to further reflect community priorities. Now we are considering the budgets for next year and the level of the council tax we will ask you to pay to provide these services, and we want to hear your views.
Over the past five years, based on your feedback and priorities, your council tax has been invested to give you:
This year, the financial picture is uncertain and it is anticipated that the cost of inflationary increases will be more than the funding available from the government. The challenge for us is to find ways of sustaining the improvements in your local services that we have made and meet the priorities for further improvement.
We want to know your views and have launched this budget survey to ask you whether you would pay more for the services provided by policing and the fire service.
Your responses will be taken into account by the PFCC in deciding the level of council tax precept to ask you to pay towards police and fire services in Northamptonshire next year
While you are here, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service is consulting on a new plan on how it will deploy resources to tackle risks in our communities. Please take part in the consultation here