Police and Crime Commissioner says West Midlands devolution deal ‘has failed’ - here’s why

Simon Foster, Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands has criticised the West Midlands deeper devolution deal with government
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The seismic devolution deal which shifts powers from Westminster to the West Midlands has been criticised by the region’s police boss for “failing” on community safety.

Specifically, Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster claims the government has broken its promise to “reduce homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime, within the worst affected areas by 2030”.

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Speaking at the Strategic Police and Crime Board on Tuesday (March 28), Mr Foster told how his office submitted proposals to the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice which were all rejected. These included ways the criminal justice system could:

  • work better for policing and victims of crime,
  • improve the prospects of turning around the lives of young people,
  • and increase retention of average speed enforcement fines and proceeds of crime, to enable them to be invested back into the West Midlands.

He said: “The Government’s Deeper Devolution Deal has failed to deliver on policing, community safety and criminal justice. We committed significant effort and time and negotiated with the government in good faith.

“However, the government has knocked back all of our proposals and has included nothing in the deal that will make good on its own promise to reduce homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime, within the worst affected areas by 2030.

“We will still have 1,000 fewer police officers than we had in 2010 and an unfair funding formula, that costs the West Midlands £40 million a year, the equivalent of about 800 police officers.

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“There is no levelling up when it comes to policing, community safety and criminal justice. The government has failed the people of the West Midlands once again.” Mr Foster last week dropped out of the race to be Labour’s candidate for mayor in the 2024 election.

West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner Simon Foster and Mayor Andy StreetWest Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner Simon Foster and Mayor Andy Street
West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner Simon Foster and Mayor Andy Street

It is believed he received three local constituency nominations, compared with the eight received by Victim’s Commissioner Nicky Brennan and 17 by political newcomer Richard Parker.

The ‘deeper devolution deal’ was negotiated by Mayor Andy Street and the government and confirmed in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget on March 15. The first-of-its-kind deal, worth £1.5 billion, marks an end to the ‘begging bowl’ culture in which the region had to apply for pots of government funding.

Instead, the mayor and West Midlands Combined Authority has the money and powers to address transport, infrastructure, skills, and housing needs as they see fit. The deal was signed by Andy Street and the Minister for Levelling Up Michael Gove at a ceremony last week in Coventry.

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Tensions between Mr Street and Mr Foster have been reported in the past, with the commissioner accusing the mayor of attempting a ‘hostile takeover’ of policing. In letters between the pair, details of which were published last November, Mr Street said he would prefer policing powers to sit within the mayor’s remit. Mr Foster, who was also elected into his position, said at the time that any such power grab would be “profoundly undemocratic”.

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