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South Wales Police has confirmed it needs to save more than £7m this financial year.

The force has revealed it has a budget gap of £7.2m in 2019-20.

This year, a 10% rise in the South Wales Police precept for taxpayers in Bridgend , Cardiff , Merthyr Tydfil , Neath Port Talbot , Rhondda Cynon Taf , Swansea and the Vale of Glamorgan went ahead despite the police and crime panel not giving it its backing to the hike.

Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales Alun Michael said that to achieve a “standstill” budget this year, the force needed a £26.5m increase in core funding but is receiving £7.2m less than that.

He said the burden of funding policing was being passed on to council taxpayers.

He said that money directed to specific issues such as organised crime and counter-terrorism meant the Home Office could claim police funding was rising while in reality, core police funding is being cut.

Mr Michael said: “There has been a suggestion that there has been a massive increase [in core funding].”

“The fact of the matter is there has been a reduction in the Home Office contribution to the police grant.”

He said it has forced them to increase their take from the precept and that there has been a “shift of responsibility” to the public.

He added: “Some of the additional money is there for additional burdens. We have got to meet the costs of the pensions black hole. They are giving us money to meet a debt that they have created.”

Huge rise in police council tax bills to go ahead in south Wales - despite crime panel not backing it

Some of the areas of concern he and the chief finance officer highlighted in their latest finance report for the police and crime panel included how they will meet the cost of a new police officer training scheme, that there are no extra funds for pay awards and that police pension costs are being passed on to local budgets, when they were previously covered by the Treasury.

The latest figures also showed that South Wales’ Police and Crime Commissioner’s team generated more income than any other in England and Wales last year.

Figures for 2018-19 show the team generated £6.67m in income, which is above the £1.61m average for all commissioners.

This money comes from sources such as the Police Innovation Fund, which is there to fund new ways of preventing both harm and demand, such as the work on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which has proved successful in Maesteg .

The figures also show that the South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner team got the most in government grants with £5.08 million awarded, well above the £1.38 million average for all commissioners.

But despite being the highest income generator, leading to them having significant projects to manage, the commissioner’s staffing complement is

only at the average of all 43 PCCs and the commissioner’s budget, as a percentage of net funding, is only marginally higher than the average.

Mr Michael said it has become clear that a lot of money has been taken out of the police transformation fund to fund activity on serious violence.

He said: “It has become clear that a lot of money has been taken out to fund serious violence activity.

“It is understandable but it does undermine the whole concept of the police transformation fund. It is a significant sum of money.”

He said they were trying to find different ways of carrying out their long-term measures, such as work on ACEs, adding that programmes such as Early Action Together had gained a lot of interest from other forces in England and internationally