The publication of the Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2025-26 marks a major turning point in how crime is tackled up and down the country. After 14 years of Conservative failure, the Labour government is taking decisive action to rebuild our police services and make our streets safer.
Under this funding settlement, police forces across England and Wales will receive up to £1.1 billion more in 2025-26, representing a 4.1% real terms increase and a 6.6% cash increase compared to the previous year’s settlement under the Conservative government. This investment will kickstart the recruitment of 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, doubling the initial £100 million provision announced in December.
South Wales Police which serves our community, will receive a record £25.2 million increase for the forthcoming year, equivalent to a 6.2% increase—providing officers with the resources they need to ensure that, you, the taxpayers of Cardiff East, feel safe in your homes and on our streets.
This isn’t just about numbers—it’s about reversing the damage caused by years of Tory cuts, which saw neighbourhood policing gutted – with the number of PCSOs halved since 2010 and special constable numbers falling by two-thirds since 2012. The public has felt the consequences: more than half of people now say they never see a police officer on their streets. That will change under this Labour government.
Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will restore police patrols to our town centres and ensure that every community has a named, contactable officer dedicated to tackling the issues that mean most to you. We are giving officers the tools they need to crack down on antisocial behaviour, shoplifting, and street crime—offences that spiralled under the previous government.
In 2023, shoplifting reached a 20-year high, with a staggering 214 snatch thefts occurring every day in England and Wales. The Conservative government’s approach to law and order was to let crime fester—our approach is to tackle it head-on. That is why, following tireless campaigning by USDAW and the Co-Op, this Labour government will legislate for assaults against retail workers by creating a new stand-alone offence. And we’ll scrap the Tories’ £200 limit for “low value” thefts to ensure no offenders get away with impunity.
We will halve knife crime within a decade. Under the Tories, knife crime continued to rise, with a 4% increase last year alone, and with knife-enabled robberies accounting for 42% of all recorded knife crimes.
Unlike the Conservatives, who repeatedly promised to ban zombie knives but never delivered, Labour has already outlawed these lethal weapons. We are going further, too—consulting on a ban on ninja swords and introducing tougher age verification to stop knives from falling into the hands of under-18s.
For too long, violence against women and girls has been treated as an afterthought. Prosecutions for domestic abuse have almost halved over the last eight years, and victims of rape have had to wait an average of 300 days just to see their perpetrators charged. This is an unacceptable failure of justice.
The Labour government is treating this issue as the national emergency it is. The new Ministerial Board on Violence Against Women and Girls will take a cross-government approach to prevention, protection, and prosecution. Raneem’s Law will ensure domestic abuse specialists are placed in 999 control rooms, and we will roll out Domestic Abuse Protection Orders to stop repeat offenders in their tracks before their abuse escalates.
The truth is, under the previous Tory government, law and order collapsed. Labour is changing that.
With this new funding settlement, we are putting police back on the beat, taking criminals off our streets, and restoring public confidence in policing. After 14 years of Tory failure, it’s time for a government that takes crime seriously. Labour is delivering the change our communities need.