Stephen Watson warns police force mergers require billions in funding

Sir Stephen Watson has issued a warning that sweeping proposals to overhaul policing structures across England and Wales cannot be achieved without significant financial backing from the Treasury. According to reporting detailed by Danny Shaw, the Greater Manchester Police chief constable argues that shaking up the current framework requires substantial upfront investment, a view that arrives as policymakers brace for upcoming recommendations on reducing the nation's constabularies.

The debate surrounding police structure forms part of a broader government reform agenda initially outlined in a Home Office White Paper published in January, according to Danny Shaw's reporting. As part of these preparations, a review led by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe is expected to land on the desk of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood by the end of August. The review will deliver a detailed blueprint examining how many of the country's 43 constabularies should be amalgamated. A previous attempt to consolidate forces in 2005 targeted a reduction down to 12.

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Opposition parties, including the Conservatives and Reform UK, are widely anticipated to resist the amalgamations, raising concerns that neighborhood policing in rural and isolated communities will suffer. In response to these political pressures, policing leaders have stepped forward to defend the strategy. National Police Chiefs’ Council chair Gavin Stephens, Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper, and Watson recently laid out the case for larger regional entities, with internal estimates suggesting roughly three-quarters of police and crime commissioners and chiefs are in favor of restructuring, according to Danny Shaw.

Watson delivered a forthright assessment of the existing system's inefficiencies.

"We are paying for 43 chief constables, 43 deputy chief constables, 43 headquarters, 43 IT departments, 43 means of procurement 43 different times - there is no planet in which policing will have been designed this way."

Sir Stephen Watson, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, via Danny Shaw

According to Watson, the push for larger units is not merely about size for its own sake, but about identifying the optimal scale required to maintain sustainable and effective neighborhood operations. He cautioned that too many smaller forces are forced onto the defensive, bogged down by constant reactivity rather than proactive enforcement.

"What they don't know is potentially that serious and organised crime is almost going untouched in their area because their local force simply do not have the capacity even to turn over the stone to be able to determine what then needs to be done, and even if they could do that they wouldn't have the capability or the capacity to do anything about it."

Sir Stephen Watson, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, via Danny Shaw

While describing the prospect of organizational reform as exciting, Watson stressed that it cannot be executed on a shoestring budget. He emphasized that Treasury ministers must be convinced that mergers will deliver long-term savings and improvements to justify investing a couple of billion pounds in "pump priming" funds to get the initiative off the ground.

What happens next depends heavily on the delivery of Lord Hogan-Howe's blueprint to the Home Secretary by the end of August. Legislation paving the way for wider law enforcement reorganization is anticipated in the coming months, setting the stage for a contentious legislative battle over the future shape of British policing and the financial commitments required to sustain it.