People in Greater Manchester could be asked to pay MORE council tax to help GMP

Andy Burnham has been accused of 'blaming the public' for GMP's performance amid plans to increase the force's funds via council tax.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority has launched a survey on funding for GMP which asks residents if they would be willing to pay more towards the police precept - a stream of council tax funding paid to the police which makes up 25 percent of their total funding. The other 75 percent comes from a grant from central government - which GMCA said is "a 1.5 percent below inflation policing grant in real terms to Greater Manchester".

The survey claims the precept in Greater Manchester is "one of the lowest in the country" and that if the funding is not increased there could be "cuts to the service that you receive".

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GMCA is proposing to an increase of £10.11 per year (84 pence a month) for band B properties. For a band D property, the increase would be by £13 per year (or £1.08 a month). Around 80 percent of households in Greater Manchester are in bands A-C.

Councillor Adam Kealey, of Salford Conservatives, said "blaming" residents for the performance of GMP is "completely inappropriate" and called for the consultation to be ditched.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "This is completely inappropriate for the Mayor to suggest. Increasing the precept or blaming residents for failures is a regressive step in what were positive signs of improvement.

"The inability of the Police to perform duties is in no way the fault of residents who want to keep more of their earnings but the poor leadership of the Mayor of Greater Manchester, who acts as the Police and Crime