Government sets out final police funding settlement for 2026/27
Overall funding for the policing system in England and Wales for 2026/27, including to police forces and wider system funding, will be up to £21 billion, an increase of around £1.3 billion when compared with the 2025/26 funding settlement, the Policing Minister has confirmed.
Sarah Jones said this represents a cash funding increase of 6.7 per cent and a real terms increase of 4.4 per cent.
She said this will provide forces with the “certainty and investment needed to strengthen neighbourhood policing, modernise frontline capability, and ensure policing can meet the demands of today and the future”.
In her ministerial statement, Ms Jones said: “The priority of the 2026/27 settlement is to boost visible policing and ensure forces can shape their workforce to meet modern crime demands. Every community deserves visible, proactive and accessible neighbourhood policing, with officers focused on the issues that matter most locally.”
Total funding for Territorial Police Forces and Counter Terrorism Policing will be up to £19.6 billion in 2026/27, an increase of £848 million compared with the 2025/26 police funding settlement. This represents a 4.5 per cent increase in cash terms and a 2.2 per cent increase in real terms for policing, Ms Jones said.
Within this, total funding to Territorial Police Forces will be up to £18.4 billion, an increase of £796 million compared with the 2025/26 settlement, representing a 4.5 per cent cash increase and a 2.3 per cent real terms increase for police forces.
Of the overall increase in force level funding, £432 million is additional government grant funding to police forces. This includes an additional £50 million to support the Government’s neighbourhood policing objectives above that announced at the provisional police funding settlement in December 2025.
Ms Jones said the overall increase in Territorial Police funding also includes up to £364 million in additional funding for forces in England and Wales from council tax precept, compared to 2025/26.
As confirmed in the Provisional local government finance settlement published on December 17, 2025, police and crime commissioners (PCCs) in England will have the flexibility to increase the police precept by up to £15 for a Band D property in 2025/26. This assumes PCCs make use of the full precept flexibility of £15 for English forces, Ms Jones said.
Funding for Counter-Terrorism Policing will increase by at least £52 million to £1.2 billion in 2026/27. PCCs will receive separate, confidential notification of force level counter-terrorism allocations, which are not published for security reasons.
Responding to the Final Police Funding Settlement (England and Wales) 2026/27, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) joint leads on Funding and Finance, Joy Allen and Roger Hirst, said: “PCCs and deputy mayors welcome the Government’s commitment to neighbourhood policing and the additional money being provided to fund officers. However, the settlement is only sufficient to fund the increase in personnel promised by the government under the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee in part, so it is clear PCCs will continue to be faced with difficult decisions to deliver the visible local policing that we know the public value so highly.
“We welcome the funding the Government has said it will provide for fighting serious violence, including Violence Reduction Units which tackle the underlying causes of violence, the Young Futures programme, and tackling knife crime and county lines drug dealing.
“The funding for hotspot policing has been rolled into the neighbourhood policing grant already announced, which presents a challenge in sustaining partnership working with local authority enforcement.
“This week’s policing reform White Paper commits in the long term to reviewing the police funding formula which we have long argued is outdated, with council tax payers increasingly asked to help balance the books.
“But the severe financial pressures faced by PCCs across England and Wales are immediate so we will fully engage with government and our partners to ensure available funding is used efficiently to deliver the effective police service the public deserves.
“We are aware the cost of police reform has been estimated at around £500 million. While the Government has announced that £119 million will be allocated to the reform programme in 2026/27, PCCs are clear that any funding associated with reform must be subject to robust oversight, transparency and accountability. It is essential that investment in reform of policing does not divert resources away from the front line.”
APCC joint leads on Local Policing, Chris Nelson and Matt Storey, added: “The additional £50 million made available to increase the number of officers is certainly welcome but we need to understand the conditions attached to the new Neighbourhood Policing grant. We want to deliver the increase in neighbourhood policing the government has pledged, but this can only be done if it is fully funded.
“Current funding covers the cost of approximately 750 additional officers, so it is unclear how forces will be able to fund the remaining 1,000 neighbourhood officers to which the government has committed.
“We are also very disappointed the government is not continuing financial support for anti-social behaviour hotspot patrolling which is such an essential feature of high visibility neighbourhood policing.”