GOVERNMENT money to pay for policing next year will not provide an instant fix, a union boss has warned.

The provisional police funding settlement will see an extra £970m for police coffers for the 2019/20 financial year.

Essex Police is set to receive £298.8 million, an increase of £23 million.

An extra £3.3 million grant will be given to the force and another £2.9 million is set to go towards officers’ pensions.

The remaining £16.8 million will come from the council tax precept, working out to an increase of £2 per month for a Band D household.

Last year, the increase equated to 150 extra police officers across the force and it is expected the same number will be delivered again.

Essex Police Federation chairman Steve Taylor said the force will have to deliver quickly.

He said: “It’s an expectation, but it’s an expectation that council tax payers here in Essex have already experienced because we had growth from the last council tax increase where the police, fire and crime commissioner put it up a couple of pounds.

“Members of the public have already experienced that it takes time for that money to translate into extra officers.

“But if that’s what members of our community are more concerned about, the fact that they’re not seeing it quick enough, I’d rather be dealing with that than we’re not getting any relief coming at all.”

He added: “It enables us to continue to see the green shoots of reinvestment after such a lean period and we have guarantees that it will transfer into more officers.

“So, we welcome it.

"Where the money comes from to my mind is a secondary concern.

"When things are so tight on the frontline, the fact that we are getting extra money, it might not be from the ideal source, but it’s welcome and it offers relief to our members here in Essex."

Mr Taylor said he believed the emphasis is being put on local politicians in terms of funding police forces.

He said: “From a national point of view, I completely appreciate that it is passing the buck to the local tax payer.

“But it’s also insulating the centre from the local. Only now that we’re seeing the changes to the police cap, the centre is saying you can pay for it locally and they’re giving local politicians the ability to pay things locally.

“So, in a perverse way it’s giving more accountability to the local politicians. If they get that wrong, then we’ll take it up with them locally.

“We can have views on whether or not that’s the right thing to do and I want to see a fairer police funding formula from the centre."