Northumbria Police hit by funding shortage

Written by on 25th April 2024

Police car at an incident. Credit: Alamy

Northumbria Police are struggling amid a funding shortage following a decade long “government austerity drive”.

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Kim McGuiness believes Northumbria has been the hardest hit of any force in England and Wales, due to what she describes as “the central Government austerity drive”.

She said: “I’ve campaigned hard for the Government to give us back our cops -pleas have gone unanswered.

“The Chief Constables and I have been forced to make numerous cost saving exercises that have allowed us to recruit regardless.”

In July 2019, the Police Uplift Programme was established by the Home Office to “recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by the end of March 2023”.

However, PCC McGuiness said (despite the action-plan) “Northumbria, unlike some other forces, is still below the number of officers and resources pre-austerity.”

PCC McGuiness says the force needs “long term, sustained funding to deliver the work needed to fight and prevent crime in the region and in the meantime our police force will continue doing its best fighting and preventing crime with the resources available.” 

Northumbria Police cover the whole North East area, including Newcastle, Gateshead, Tyneside and Sunderland – serving a population of around 1.5 million people. According to the Northumbria Police website they have 3,821 officers and 2,172 police staff.


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