English Mayors Warn Police Merger Could Weaken Local Policing

Published: 07 November 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

Plans to dramatically reduce the number of police forces across England and Wales have triggered strong opposition from several regional mayors, who warn that creating a small number of powerful regional forces could weaken local accountability and undermine community policing. The proposal, which could transform the structure of British law enforcement, has also raised concerns about the future relationship between policing authorities and the government’s wider devolution agenda.

The controversy emerged after Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and one of Britain’s most senior police officers, called for the existing 43 police forces in England and Wales to be merged into between eight and 10 larger regional organisations. His proposal has intensified an already significant debate over how policing should be organised, funded and managed in the coming years.

Rowley argues that the current policing structure is outdated and that a major reduction in the number of forces is necessary to improve efficiency, strengthen specialist capabilities and respond more effectively to modern criminal threats. However, several mayors and regional political leaders believe that such an extensive restructuring could move decision-making further away from local communities and reduce the ability of elected representatives to hold police leaders accountable.

Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region and a close political ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of the proposal. He described the plan as a form of centralisation disguised as administrative reform, warning that merging smaller forces into a handful of enormous regional organisations would run counter to the government’s commitment to devolving power to local communities.

Rotheram argued that effective policing depends on understanding the particular challenges faced by individual towns, cities and neighbourhoods. According to him, creating large regional forces could make it more difficult for local communities to influence policing priorities and ensure that their concerns receive sufficient attention.

He also questioned the assumption that larger organisations would automatically deliver better public safety. In his view, the benefits of administrative consolidation should not come at the expense of local accountability, which remains an essential element of public confidence in law enforcement.

The disagreement comes as the government prepares to consider recommendations from an official review commissioned by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in January. The review is being conducted by Bernard Hogan-Howe, a former Metropolitan Police commissioner, who has been examining possible changes to the structure of policing in England and Wales.

Although the review has not yet been published, it is understood to consider several possible models for reorganising the existing 43 forces. The options reportedly include creating between nine and 18 larger forces, suggesting that the final recommendation could be less radical than Rowley’s preferred arrangement.

One of the central questions concerns how new police boundaries should be established. Several regional mayors believe that police forces should operate within boundaries that correspond to existing mayoral regions. They argue that this would allow elected regional leaders to exercise meaningful oversight while maintaining a closer relationship between police organisations and the communities they serve.

This approach has attracted attention because it could provide a middle ground between maintaining the existing 43-force system and creating only eight or 10 enormous regional forces.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is also understood to have concerns about the proposed restructuring. His principal worries reportedly involve the potential impact on neighbourhood policing and the accountability of police leadership. The Metropolitan Police already covers almost the entire capital, while the City of London Police operates separately within the historic financial district. A more extensive merger could potentially bring the smaller force under the Metropolitan Police’s wider organisational structure.

The debate has also exposed differences between political leaders in northern England and senior figures within the Metropolitan Police. Some mayors believe that policing reforms should reflect regional needs rather than being driven primarily by the preferences of senior officers based in London.

One unnamed mayor suggested that Prime Minister Keir Starmer could ultimately support a compromise that aligns police forces with mayoral boundaries. Such an arrangement could reduce the number of forces by approximately half, leaving considerably more organisations than the eight to 10 proposed by Rowley.

The mayor suggested that the government was likely to pursue a balanced approach that would strengthen regional oversight without abandoning established local policing arrangements. The experience of Greater Manchester was highlighted as an example of how local accountability and regional leadership could work together.

Bev Craig, mayor of Greater Manchester, has also expressed opposition to the most radical version of the proposed reforms. She believes the government’s decision should recognise the benefits of locally accountable policing and avoid creating unnecessarily large organisations that could weaken established relationships between communities and law enforcement.

Craig argued that Greater Manchester had demonstrated the value of maintaining accountability at a geographical level that makes sense to residents. She indicated that the government should carefully examine existing regional arrangements before deciding how far structural changes should go.

David Skaith, mayor of York and North Yorkshire, delivered another strong criticism, describing the proposal as a real threat to local policing. He also challenged the idea that the Metropolitan Police should be considered an example of consistently successful law enforcement.

Skaith argued that the Met’s own record did not justify its leadership taking a position of authority over policing arrangements in other parts of the country. His comments reflected wider concerns among regional leaders that reform proposals should not be shaped exclusively by the experiences and priorities of London’s police service.

Kim McGuinness, mayor of North East England, also warned against dismantling a policing structure that has supported British law enforcement for generations. She described local accountability as a fundamental part of the criminal justice system and argued that any major restructuring must be approached with considerable caution.

McGuinness was particularly critical of the idea that the head of London’s police force should dictate how policing operates in northern England. She pointed to the difficulties facing the Metropolitan Police and questioned whether its leadership was in a position to lecture other regional forces about policing standards.

Despite the political opposition, Rowley has defended his proposal, insisting that the reforms are intended to strengthen rather than weaken local policing. Speaking in Manchester, he argued that modern criminal activity has become increasingly complex and that individual police forces cannot always respond effectively without access to broader regional resources.

He highlighted the growing challenges posed by international criminal networks and argued that local officers need the support of larger specialist organisations to tackle serious and organised crime. According to Rowley, neighbourhood policing and specialist capabilities should not be treated as competing priorities because successful law enforcement requires both.

His argument has received support from several senior police officers, including Stephen Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police. Watson has warned that failing to reform the existing system would amount to allowing policing standards and operational capabilities to decline over time.

Watson described the need for structural change as essential, pointing to what he considers significant administrative duplication across the 43 existing forces. Each organisation maintains its own headquarters, senior leadership structure, information technology management, human resources departments and procurement arrangements.

He argued that maintaining 43 separate administrative systems creates unnecessary costs and prevents police forces from using their financial resources as efficiently as possible. In his view, merging organisations could reduce duplicated expenditure and release more funding for frontline policing.

The financial argument is particularly important because senior police figures reportedly do not expect the Treasury to provide substantial additional funding for law enforcement. Instead, the proposed restructuring is expected to generate savings that could eventually amount to hundreds of millions of pounds.

Those resources could potentially be redirected towards increasing the number of officers available for frontline duties, improving investigative capabilities and replacing outdated technology. Police leaders believe that modernising systems and sharing specialist resources would help forces respond more effectively to emerging security challenges.

However, the political debate demonstrates that financial efficiency alone may not determine whether the proposed reforms succeed. For regional mayors, the central issue is whether a larger policing structure can maintain public trust while ensuring that local communities retain meaningful influence over decisions affecting their safety.

The government’s eventual decision will therefore involve balancing several competing priorities, including operational efficiency, financial sustainability, specialist crime prevention, neighbourhood policing and democratic accountability.

With the official review still awaiting publication, uncertainty remains over the scale and direction of the proposed changes. The final model could represent a compromise between the existing system and the more ambitious consolidation advocated by senior police leaders.

Whatever decision is taken, the restructuring debate is likely to have lasting consequences for policing across England and Wales. The challenge for the government will be to modernise law enforcement without creating a system in which local communities feel increasingly distant from the institutions responsible for protecting them.