Police merger could add 23% to Hampshire Constabulary council tax precept

10.27.50am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 20th Dec 2005

"The council tax payers of Hampshire will be paying more but getting no discernible improvement".

Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne predicted that a merger between the Hampshire Constabulary and the Thames Valley police could add 23 per cent to Hampshire police precepts.

Mr Huhne spoke in the House of Commons debate concerning police mergers pointing out that Hampshire was the third most effective constabulary in the country but had the thirteenth lowest police precept of all the 43 police authorities in England and Wales. "If it isn't broken, don't fix it" he appealed to the minister.

Mr Huhne pointed out that a merger with the Thames Valley would mean a higher police precept in Hampshire and a lower one in Thames Valley, even though the improvements would mainly be in the Thames Valley force notably in readiness to tackle terrorism.

"The figures are very clear. We in Hampshire would have to pay an extra 6 per cent in the police precept to align with Thames Valley.

"Then we would have to pay a further 8 per cent to meet the one-off costs of merger such as common IT systems. Then there would be another 9 per cent rise to pay for the on-going costs of the merger.

"In other words, the council tax payers of Hampshire will be paying more but getting no discernible improvement in their policing. Indeed, there is a clear risk that a larger force will be less responsive, accountable to local people.

"The Government simply cannot justify rushing through such an important change without thinking about the largely adverse consequences for an important and effective force like Hampshire" Chris Huhne said.