WILTSHIRE Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson has backed a new report calling for fair funding for rural forces.

The report commissioned by the National Rural Crime Network claims that country constabularies are likely to lose out because government thinking is skewed in favour of urban areas.

The Home Office is currently reviewing how it allocates national funds across forces and there is concern because it appears to be in favour of using the number of crimes recorded as the main basis for distributing funding.

“The Government’s approach of counting reported crime works against rural forces and skews funding towards areas with high volumes of thefts,” said Mr Macpherson.

“But that doesn’t reflect the complexity of demands on police or the specific challenge of policing sparse, rural populations.

“Post-Brexit, the funding settlement we received last year is now in question. It's therefore more important than ever to put forward the case of rural forces and ensure our voice is heard. Along with other police and crime commissioners from rural areas, I will be using this report to do exactly that.”

Carried out by academics at Plymouth University the study says using the number of crimes recorded means funding would be disproportionately influenced by volume crimes such as shoplifting, which happen far more often in urban areas than in rural ones.

“The Government’s approach appears to sacrifice fairness in pursuit of simplicity,” said Prof Sheena Asthana.

“We think a fresh start is needed and that any new approach needs to use a different methodology and draw on different data if it is to achieve a fair system for distributing funds.”

The report Fair Funding for Rural Policing argues that rural areas face additional burdens that should be factored into funding, including plugging the gap left by other services including health and social care.

It says rural forces have to shoulder the cost of significantly higher round-trip distances when attending incidents and because they tend to have fewer officers, the burden is up to 65 per cent higher than for forces nationally.

Julia Mulligan, chairman of the NRCN added: “Demands on rural forces differ to those of urban forces and a funding formula is needed that reflects that variation and provides for such differing requirements.

“Above all, the important thing is for all forces to feel confident that the funding they receive is fair and reflects underlying need rather than a crude calculation that is loaded in favour of urban areas.”