Government Must ‘Continue Momentum’ Of Police Pay Deals
Politicians need to heed police pay body recommendations and “continue the momentum” of pay deals to tackle recruitment and retention problems, Hampshire Police Federation has said.
During election campaigning, political candidates from all parties were vocal about needing more police officers, but this will not to happen if police pay and conditions do not improve, said Hampshire Police Federation Chair Zoë Wakefield.
She said: “Politicians need to give police reassurance that they are going to go along with the recommendations from the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB). Because, at the moment, their recommendations are not binding and the Home Secretary can just make their own decision.
“Politicians themselves always get a good pay rise from their independent pay body. Ours is also supposedly independent, so I’d say that our pay rises should reflect the politicians’.
“The National Police Chiefs’ Council has recommended at least 5%. But because police pay is still way behind other public-sector pay, let alone the private sector, ideally we need a 10% pay rise to bring us back in line with where we should be.
“I don’t think we’re going to get that, but I’d like to see sustained, decent pay rises for the next several years. We’ve had two fair pay rises for the past two years, and that momentum needs to continue.”
Most forces were struggling to recruit, Zoë said, and one reason for that was poor pay.
She explained: “We see a lot of people who take a significant pay cut to join the police because they want to make a difference and give something back to their community, but there’ll be plenty of people who would like to apply but don’t because they can’t afford to live on that money.
“A decent pay rise across the board would attract more people into the organisation. Even older people might think: ‘Do you know what, I’ll quit my job here and join the police because I’ve always wanted to do it’. But at the moment people just would not be able to afford it.”