Police hail latest cuts — a 14% fall in crime

Aim is to become most effective UK force

GREATER Manchester has seen the biggest reduction in crime across the North-West and is falling twice as fast as the rest of the country.

Figures from the Home Office show overall crime fell by 14 per cent across the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) area between June, 2009, and June this year.

Across the region recorded crime fell by 12 per cent and by 8 per cent across England and Wales.

Sexual offences increased by 1 per cent in the period and fraud and forgery went up by 2 per cent, but all other forms of crime fell significantly.

Car crime and criminal damage both fell by almost a quarter, and robbery levels fell by 20 per cent and burglary 18 per cent. Violence against a person fell by 8 per cent and drug offences by 5 per cent.

In total, 239,425 crimes were reported to GMP in the 12 month period — an average of 656 a day.

Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne said: “I am delighted that crime continues to fall across Greater Manchester.

“Our aim is to become the most effective police force in the UK and to be driven by the priorities of local people, so this continuing drop in crime reflects our long-term commitment to making our communities a safer place to live.

“We have always had an excellent record when it comes to tackling serious organised crime but we recognised we needed to improve on the day-to-day issues that really affect people such as burglary, vehicle crime and robbery.”

Home Secretary Theresa May said said while any reduction was welcome statistics only presented a partial picture.

She said: “There are still too many offences which ruin lives, whether they are recorded or not, and that means more needs to be done to bring down crime.

“We want to ensure that police and their partner agencies continue to work together to focus on fighting crime, which is why we are slashing bureaucracy to ensure police officers are visible and available on the streets and making police forces more accountable to their local communities.”

Labour’s shadow Home Secretary Ed Balls said: “These figures are a tribute to the work of our police and show that Labour’s policies to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour were working.

“I hope the Home Secretary will now finally admit that crime fell substantially under Labour, helped by a record number of police officers, and that the risk of being a victim of crime is at a 30-year low.”

The figures came a day after Home Office funding was among the hardest hit in the spending review unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne — with policing budgets slashed by 14 per cent by 2014.

Labour claims that will be more like 20 per cent once other factors are included, such as running elections for directly-elected police commissioners — a coalition pledge.