What do you want to pay for the police and fire services? Tell the PFCC by 11 November

Part of every council tax bill in Uttlesford goes to Essex Police and to Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. That part, called the precept, is set each year by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) for Essex, Roger Hirst. He is asking how much you would be prepared to pay towards both in 2027/28, and his survey closes on Wednesday 11 November. If you have a view on policing or fire and rescue in our villages and towns, this is a good time to give it.

What each home pays now

What you pay depends on your home’s council tax band. In 2026/27, a Band D home pays £275.31 a year for Essex Police and £92.52 for fire and rescue. Both went up in April 2026, by £14.94 and £4.95 (~5.7% each). Other bands pay a fixed share of the Band D amount, from two-thirds in Band A to double in Band H. In Uttlesford, the amounts a year are:

Band C is the most common band in Uttlesford, with about one home in five, followed by Bands D and E. You can check your home’s band on GOV.UK.

What the Commissioner says

The Commissioner makes his case in the survey and in his press release.

On policing, he says Essex Police is the “third-lowest-funded force per head of population in England and Wales”, citing the police and fire inspectorate’s 2025 value-for-money profiles, and that the national funding formula leaves the force relying more heavily on money raised locally through the precept. He says recorded crime in Essex has fallen since its high point in 2019, though overall crime rose by 2% in the 12 months to August 2026.

On fire and rescue, he says the service’s settlement funding from the Government will fall by £1.78m, or 4.7%, in 2027/28,¹ and by £3.3m over the three years of the settlement. He says crews faced “exceptional and sustained demand” this summer: between 25 May and 23 August they attended 6,580 incidents, 36% above the 2021 to 2025 average, and 1,605 outdoor fires, 29% more than in summer 2025. His release says climate change is bringing greater risks from wildfires and flooding, and that the plan is to assume the summer “was not a one-off”. The service’s plans for 2027/28 include seven more full-time firefighters, so that more fire engines are available in the daytime, and a new firefighter training centre, and the release says delivering them “depends on the precept decision”. (The service had 631 full-time firefighters in March 2025, so seven more would be an increase of about 1%.) The release also says the service has saved £7.2m over five years, and is reviewing how it uses its resources.

He wants to know whether residents “support continuing to invest locally to protect current service levels”.

How to respond

Fill in the survey online. The Commissioner says it takes a few minutes, and he is encouraging residents, businesses, community groups and people who work or travel in Essex to take part. For a paper copy or another format, email [email protected] or phone 01245 291600.

It closes on Wednesday 11 November. The Commissioner has the option to extend it to 25 November, but don’t count on that. The answers will be analysed independently and used to inform the pre-budget meeting, on Tuesday 8 December, of the Essex Police, Fire and Crime Panel, which approved the 2026/27 police and fire budgets.

Details correct on 27 October 2026.

Pass it on

Last year, 1,710 people answered the Commissioner’s survey: about one in every 900 adults in Essex, Southend and Thurrock.² Whatever you think, please take part, and pass this on to anyone who might want to answer.

Sources

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex

• ‘We have plans to keep you safe and secure’ – Update: PFCC 2026/27 budgets for Essex Police and ECFRS approved — news release, 3 February 2026.
• Commissioner seeks views on funding the future police and fire response in Essex — news release, 14 October 2026.
• Essex PFCC Funding for Policing and Fire & Rescue Services 2027/28 — online precept survey, opened 14 October 2026.

Uttlesford District Council

• How your Council Tax is set 2026/27 — web page, checked 26 October 2026.
• Council Tax Resolution 2026/27 — Appendix B to the budget report, approved at Full Council on 24 February 2026.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

• FIRE1101: Staff in post employed by fire and rescue authorities by headcount and full time equivalent by role and fire and rescue authority — fire statistics data table, figures at 31 March 2025.

Office for National Statistics

• Estimates of the population for England and Wales — dataset, mid-2025 edition.

GOV.UK

• Check your Council Tax band — online service.

Footnotes

1. This is the Commissioner’s figure under the final local government finance settlement, the Government’s funding deal for councils and fire and rescue authorities. The survey page gives £1.2m, the earlier provisional figure. ↩

2. Our calculation, from the Office for National Statistics’ mid-2025 population estimates: 1,529,494 people aged 18 or over live in the Commissioner’s area (Essex County Council’s area, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock), and 1,710 is about 0.11% of them. The survey doesn’t say who can answer it. ↩