The amount of council tax paid to police will be rising by £10 for band D homes across Hampshire – but there are calls for an overhaul of how the emergency service is funded.

Household bills to pay to police through their council tax could go up by 3.98 per cent, which would see a band D home pay an extra £10, taking the precept to £261.46 for 2024/25. The increases will mean an extra income of £7.2 million.

Cllr Matthew Renyard, from Southampton City Council, said that Hampshire’s police force is “the third least funded constabulary in the country” through a funding formula that is “no longer fit for purpose”.

He urged the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Panel not to approve the police precept and by doing so, send a “clear” message to the Home Office that ”we, as a Police and Crime Panel, no longer feel that is an acceptable place for Hampshire to be”.

Cllr Renyard added: “I would like to send a clear message to the Home office that, as a yes/maybe political stunt, will be to not endorse the increase in the local precept at this time with a very clear message that we expect to see more coming from the central government.”

Cllr Jonathan Williams, from Winchester City Council, said: “I’m going to take the opportunity to vote against the proposal. The message that there needs to be a higher proportion of funding from the national government rather than relying on local residents needs to go back to the national government.”

However, Cllr Trevor Cartwright, the independent co-opted member, said that despite their all agreeing about the government funding situation and that they were “not happy” with it, “we are where we are at the present moment”, and a decision should be made “one way or the other”.

Cllr Tonia Craig, from Eastleigh Borough Council, did not support the precept either since she doesn’t think that people “are not getting value for money”, adding: “We are not getting what you are telling us we’re getting.”

Cllr Craig said: “The low-level crime, it’s a low-level crime. It’s almost like it doesn’t matter. Shoplifting was a low-level crime. Today, you are telling us that it was 25 per cent up. This low level is going to increase because criminals are doing it knowing nobody’s there to actually do anything about it. So I don’t think we’re getting value for money.”

In support of the proposed precept, Cllr Simon Minas-Bound, representing Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, said that the increase is what “our residents want you guys to do”, he referred to the consultation that showed 61 per cent of the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight supported the increase.

With the approved increased percept, the Conservative police and crime commissioner Donna Jones aims to provide 30 extra local policing sergeants, open new front counters, support the recent local bobby scheme for dedicated officers in neighbourhoods, improve the 101 non-emergency services, invest in estates to provide accommodation for officers, new vehicles and better IT systems. All of that will come at a cost of £12.4 million.

The proposed 2024/25 net budget is estimated at £462.4 million. Forty-one per cent of this will come from the council tax precept and the rest from government grants, accounting for the other 59 per cent. The amount from the government is up seven per cent (£18.6 million) on last year, totalling £274 million.