I was delighted to discover that I was successful in securing this debate on the funding of Greater Manchester police. I feel certain that all hon. Members will agree that police funding is important, even if hon. Members from different parties have varying opinions on how much funding is required, how many police officers are needed and how to strike the correct balance between police officers and police community support officers on our streets.

I pay tribute to the work of the local police in Manchester, particularly in my area of south Manchester where Chief Superintendent Alan Cooper has an excellent team of police officers and staff who are committed to protecting local people. I give a special mention to Sergeant Paul Kinrade, Sergeant Brian Ogilvie, Police Constable Alan Dean and the crime reduction adviser Steve Hobson, all of whom show a real commitment to community policing in south Manchester.

There is significant good will among local people towards the police, but unfortunately that good will is running thin, not because the police are not doing their job properly, but because they are struggling to deal with the increasing workload. Nearly all the complaints that I have received about Greater Manchester police concern the time that it takes to respond to an incident, which is sometimes several days for a burglary or a low priority incident. In addition, people have not seen police officers or community support officers on the streets in their area for a long time.

Last week, representatives from the 43 police forces in England and Wales warned of a looming cash shortage. The Police Federation has claimed that 999 calls will take longer to answer and that the number of fully trained officers will be reduced. That predicted crisis is due to a curb on spending that is keeping increases down to inflation levels following previous increases in police funding.

Jan Berry, chair of the Police Federation, said:

"If you're going to increase police numbers you have to make sure you've got the money to maintain that."

The Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities point out that the effective freeze on funding will not cover the increased demands on service and have argued that an annual increase of at least 5 per cent. is required just to stand still. That is simply because of the increasing demands on our police, such as the additional 3,000 new offences since 1997.

Michael Todd, the chief constable of Greater Manchester, said that Manchester needs at least 8,000 officers to police the streets effectively, and that ideally he would like more than 10,000. In the current financial year, around the Christmas period the number of police officers stood at 7,849. That is more than 100 fewer than the number quoted to Sir Gerald Kaufman in response to a parliamentary question, in which the figure was 7,959. The actual number, 7,849, is much lower than the figure that Michael Todd has said he requires. In fact, numbers are more than 100 below what the Government have set as the minimum level of policing in Greater Manchester. According to the chairman of the police authority, Greater Manchester police could be fined around £27,000 per officer for each officer below that minimum number. I hope that the Minister will give hon. Members an assurance that that will not be the case.

During the last set of local elections in May 2006, the Labour party in my Constituency dishonestly claimed on leaflets that the number of police officers would increase this year by 143. In the council chamber, Labour councillors claimed that the reduction in police numbers was not really a cut because Greater Manchester police would simply not replace officers that were leaving or retiring. That is new Labour spin worthy of the Minister himself or any other competent Minister.

On 21 December, along with my three Greater Manchester Liberal Democrat colleagues—my hon. Friends the Members for Rochdale (Paul Rowen), Hazel Grove (Andrew Stunell) and Cheadle (Mark Hunter), who I am glad to see are in the Chamber—I met the independent chairman of the police authority, Derek Osbaldestin, to discuss the looming budget crisis. He admitted that we are facing a deficit of £1.3 million for the coming financial year, but that there is a projected shortfall of £25.9 million for 2008-09 and £12.2 million for 2009-10.