Federation’s ‘disbelief’ at Essex Police plans to cut all PCSOs amid funding shortfall

Laura Heggie, chair of Essex Police Federation, was speaking after Chief Constable  BJ Harrington warned that all PCSOs and 65 police staff were at risk of redundancy amid a £5.3 million shortfall in funding for the force.

She said this move would have “a massive impact on the police officers of Essex – who are already overstretched – but more importantly the public in the county”.

The force’s plans would also mean slashing officers’ South-East Allowance – leaving the force vulnerable to officers leaving for other forces in London – and removing the Detective Allowance entirely, meaning officers lose a substantial amount of pay.

Mr Harrington had said “difficult times lay ahead for Essex Police”. He said the force had done all it could to fight for a fair funding deal, to make efficiency savings to plug a funding gap and to try to find alternative solutions to sustain the current level of operational policing in the county.

Essex Police’s initial budget shortfall was £12.5 million, due to an inadequate Government Police Funding Settlement for 2025/26. Some money has been clawed back by efficiency savings and raising the council tax to the maximum allowed without a referendum, but the force still needs to find £5.3 million.

This mean that a number of difficult options will be presented to the Police, Fire and Crime Panel in order to plug the funding gap, the chief constable said.

Mr Harrington said “regrettably”, the options will include:

• Proposals for internal staff consultation on the removal of 164 police staff posts including all 99 police community support officers;
• The remaining 65 police staff roles to be reduced will include some customer contact administrators but will also impact other police staff roles; and
• Proposals to remove or reduce some discretionary allowances for police officers.

“In short – everyone employed by Essex Police will be impacted in some way,” said Mr Harrington.

Reducing officer numbers was considered but given the conditions of government grant funding this would require a loss of 216 police officer posts and Mr Harrington said “this is simply not viable if Essex Police is to maintain the improvements in public safety we have achieved”.

Since 2016/17 Essex Police has made savings of £62 million as well as £18 million of efficiency savings since 2019, all of which has been reinvested back into frontline policing activity.

Additionally, despite being the eighth largest force in England and Wales per head of population, the force is the third worst funded as a result of how the policing funding formula works.

Despite these challenges our force has worked hard to keep our communities safe with nearly 10,500 fewer crimes recorded in Essex in 2024 compared with 2023, the chief constable said.

Knife crime, violence against women and girls, domestic abuse, vehicle crime and anti-social behaviour offences all saw decreases in the last year.

Mr Harrington said: “I’ve said repeatedly for the last few months that all I want is fair funding for a force that is already efficient – delivering tens of millions in savings over the last decade – driving down crime and working hard to keep our communities safe.

“Despite our extensive efforts to balance the books for the next financial year, we still have a shortfall.

“The only thing left therefore that we can look at is reducing our people – that is the position that no chief constable wants to be in. I know our communities do not want to see this either, but financially there is nowhere left for us to go.

“I must be clear that police staff, as well as police officers, play a vital role in keeping our communities safe – one cannot function without the other. But I have to consider public safety in all of our proposals and reducing officer numbers by 216 is not a viable option.

“But our plans do, regrettably, impact our entire workforce in some way and whilst those plans are unpalatable on every level, I have tried my best to be fair to all, officers, staff and the public alike.

“I as chief constable and we as Essex Police are on the same page as the Government, we all want more officers on our streets – but these things can’t happen without the appropriate funding and sadly there is just not enough money in the pot.”

Ms Heggie said the Federation’s reaction was “complete disbelief”.

“That’s all of our PCSOs wiped out,” she said. “Don’t underestimate the value that they bring. They are an instrumental part of the community of policing – they are our eyes and ears. They also pick up a lot of work that is all now going to fall to police officers, who are already overstretched and can’t meet that demand.

“These cuts will have huge consequences. Changes to the service we provide the public are going to have to be made if this goes through; if we lose our PCSOs we cannot continue to provide the service we do at the moment – there’s no doubt about it.”

In a message to politicians of all parties, she said: “In order for us to do the policing, we need to have the money to do it.”

Although the chief constable has said that no police officer roles will go, Ms Heggie emphasised that these cuts would see officers exit Essex Police.

She said: “We will lose officers because they’re not going to be able to afford to stay in Essex, that’s the bottom line. They’re already living from month to month. We border London, so as soon as they step over that border they get an extra £6,500 via the London Allowance.”

Ms Heggie said the situation was “disgraceful” and that the blame lies with poor government funding for Essex Police from both the current and previous government.

She said that officers today were feeling a mix of emotions: “There’s the disbelief, there’s the sympathy for our colleagues, and there’s the anger.”

Police Federation of England and Wales acting national chair Tiff Lynch said: “The announcement by Essex Police of savage cuts landing directly in the pay packet of underpaid police officers and the intention to add to already unsustainable workloads by making all the force’s PCSOs redundant is a recipe for catastrophe and raises grave concern for public safety and for the wellbeing of officers across England and Wales if other forces follow.

“I fear we are about to see a domino effect of other forces finding cuts by targeting rank and file officers and the effect on morale, the numbers of dedicated officers who see no financial sense in staying in the job and the ability to recruit is stark.

“This is utterly unsustainable and will mean police officers taking more risk for less money when their pay packet today is already worth a fifth less than in 2009.”

Mr Harrington said: “From the headlines we have all seen, regrettably I know many chief constables find themselves in my position.

“Like my colleagues across the country, every day I see the courage, commitment, dogged determination and brilliance of my officers and staff.

“But without the right level of funding I can’t keep all of them and we cannot keep doing more with less. I hope the people of Essex understand and continue to support us during these difficult times – we will need that support now more than ever.”

Essex police, fire and crime commissioner Roger Hirst said: “We are committed to maintaining the great progress we have made since 2016 in building Essex Police to be the biggest and strongest it has ever been in terms of officer numbers.

“This has resulted in significant reductions in burglary, anti-social behaviour and crime. Since April 2016, incidents of anti-social behaviour have decreased by 72 per cent and incidents of burglary have decreased by 51 per cent. In the 12 months to the end of December 2024, all crime in Essex decreased by 6.7 per cent. We are successfully fighting back against crime in our communities.

“However, we cannot ignore the fact the Government settlement is not enough to meet pay and inflationary pressures. We have to balance the need to respond to local policing and crime priorities with the wider financial pressures on the service and on households. We have to be responsible and balance the books.

“We know Essex residents value their service – in the recent PFCC Precept Survey, held before Christmas, 85 per cent of people who responded said they would like to see more investment in policing in their community, a figure reflected in this proposed precept rise.

“Yet we can’t place all the financial burden on Essex residents and, despite the very best efforts of the chief constable and myself, economies will have to be made.

“We remain committed to delivering the best possible services to the public and to working with government to reform and improve policing in Essex.”