Forces are expected to spend the money on overtime and redeployment to put more officers on the ground as well as crime reduction units, Philip Hammond told the Commons today in his Spring Statement.
He noted many forces had decided to use the up to £970m extra the police will get through grant funding in April for new recruits but “this takes time”, he said.
Calling knife crime a “personal tragedy for the scores of families of victims”, Hammond explained home secretary Sajid Javid would now look to prioritise finding a way to “fund a lasting solution to the problem” before the Spending Review.
Hammond also announced a £3bn affordable homes guarantee scheme, which he expected would support the delivery of around 30,000 affordable homes. The scheme will guarantee loans to housing associations in England and be launched next month.
Up to 37,000 new homes are expected to be built on sites in West London, Cheshire, Didcot and Cambridge as a result of £717m from the ‘housing infrastructure fund’ being released to the areas.
Hammond said this was part of the Conservative government’s ambitions to “restore the dream of homeownership” in this country.
The chancellor also announced provision of free sanitary products in secondary schools and colleges in England from the next school year and added that a ‘future homes standard’ would be introduced, which would end the use of fossil-fuel heating systems in all new houses from 2025.
Hammond told the House he was “confident” there would be a deal secured for the UK leaving the European Union on the 29 March, and talked again about his suggestion of a ‘Brexit dividend’.
His full written ministerial statement can be found here.
