Political reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Police forces will have dedicated teams of officers focused on patrolling town centres at peak times in England and Wales, the prime minister is expected to announce. <\/p>\n Sir Keir said he wanted to end the policing “postcode lottery” by ensuring every community had specialist neighbourhood officers.<\/p>\n The Labour government is aiming to put named local officers into each neighbourhood and boost police ranks by 13,000 by 2029.<\/p>\n In his announcement on Thursday, Sir Keir is expected to say visible policing has fallen dramatically in recent years, with 90% of crime left unsolved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He will say “shoplifting and anti-social behaviour have wreaked havoc on our neighbourhoods” and argue the government’s plans will put “prevention back at the heart of policing”.<\/p>\n But police forces across the country are facing severe financial challenges, with some warning of cuts to existing officers this year.<\/p>\n Last year, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said forces faced an estimated gap of \u00a31.3bn in their overall finances over the next two years.<\/p>\n In January, the Home Office announced an extra \u00a3100m for neighbourhood policing in England and Wales.<\/p>\n Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Labour must give the police the resources they need and linked potential job cuts to the rise in employer national insurance contributions.<\/p>\n “Thanks to Labour’s jobs tax, our police services face a \u00a3118 million shortfall, putting over 1,800 police jobs at risk,” Philp said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Labour made recruiting an extra 13,000 officers into neighbourhood roles one of its central pledges ahead of last year’s general election.<\/p>\n The government’s plan for neighbourhood policing involves patrols in “hotspot” areas during the busiest periods, such as on Friday and Saturday nights.<\/p>\n An anti-social behaviour lead in every force will be expected to develop tailored action plans with residents and businesses.<\/p>\n Police forces have operational independence and discretion over when they send officers out on patrol.<\/p>\n One government source said it would be up to forces to decide when peak time is.<\/p>\n The Liberal Democrats said “the proof will be in the delivery of this announcement”.<\/p>\n “The government must fix this fully by properly funding the officers our communities need – not passing the buck to local police chiefs to put up people’s council tax instead,” the party’s home affairs spokesperson Lisa Smart said.<\/p>\n A Reform UK spokesman said the party wanted to see “officers spending their time doing real work”.<\/p>\n The spokesman said forces had wasted “millions in employing diversity and inclusion staff instead of focusing on frontline policing”.<\/p>\n The BBC has asked the Green Party for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/6067\/live\/222e00c0-15a6-11f0-a218-43cfc2a7b891.png.webp\")
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