Andy Burnham has pledged to deliver a new police hub in Piccadilly Gardens as part of a wider drive to improve policing in Greater Manchester.
Today residents and businesses can have their say on proposals for an increase to the police precept for 2026/27, which helps fund the work of Greater Manchester Police (GMP).
The Mayor is setting out a commitment to establish a prominent police hub in Piccadilly Gardens as part of a proposed police precept increase.
Despite the growing cost of policing, the latest funding settlement from Government is lower than anticipated and leaves GMP with a funding shortfall.
For April 2026 to March 2027, the central government grant is due to increase by 2.6% from the previous year (to £666 million).
This is the second lowest increase of any police force in the country – well below the national average increase of 3.2% and increases of 4% in London, 4.2% in Kent and 3.6% in Merseyside.
This below average settlement does not factor in the significant cost of policing major incidents. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police Service in London receives an additional Capital Cities Grant to help them meet their higher costs; Greater Manchester does not receive a similar grant.
Greater Manchester’s priority is to build strong communities where people feel safe, and it is both the Mayor and Deputy Mayors’ responsibility to enable GMP to be an effective and efficient police force.
To maintain the investment required for policing to protect the public, we need to increase the police precept by £11.66 per year (£0.97 a month) for a Band B property (80% of households in Greater Manchester are in Bands A-C). For a Band D property, the increase would be £15 per year (£1.25 a month).
Thanks to previous increases in our police precept, GMP has in the past year reduced burglary by 21%, robbery by 16% and knife crime by 13%. There have also been clear reductions in serious violence, vehicle offences and serious and organised crime in prisons. Neighbourhood crime has fallen by 15% overall in the last year.
Meanwhile, the service’s frontline is growing to address significant growth in demand and increased complexity of crime.
By March 2026, GMP will have at least 8,271 police officers to address significant growth in demand and increased complexity of crime – this is 2000 more than when Mayor Andy Burnham was first elected in 2017. GMP has also welcomed a further 120 officers under the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
Andy Burnham, said:
“We need GMP to be properly funded if it is to continue to deliver an effective and responsive service for people in Greater Manchester.
“The cost of running a modern police force is going up and this is at a time when our city region has become the fastest-growing economy in the UK, with visitor numbers increasing year after year. So much is happening here and that includes a number of major and complex incidents over the past year, including a terrorist attack. These incidents added significant pressure to police resources.
“We recognise the ongoing impact of the rising cost of living and do not take the decision to increase the precept lightly. But right now, this increase is our only option to ensure GMP can continue delivering an effective police service that ensures that people feel safe in their own communities.”
