The Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon has backed a new report calling for rural forces to receive fairer funding.

Angus Macpherson backed the report commissioned by the National Rural Crime Network (NRCN) of which he is a member that argues rural forces are set to lose out financially as the Government favours urban areas.

Mr Macpherson said: "The Government’s approach of counting reported crime works against rural forces and skews funding towards areas with high volumes of thefts but that doesn’t reflect the complexity of demands on police or the specific challenge of policing sparse, rural populations.

“Post-Brexit, the funding settlement we received last year is now in question. It's therefore more important than ever to put forward the case of rural forces and ensure our voice is heard. Along with other Police and Crime Commissioners from rural areas, I will be using this report to do exactly that.”

Rural forces have welcomed the report as the Home Office is currently reviewing how it allocates national funds across forces.

The research, led by Professor Sheena Asthana, argues that Government thinking relies too heavily on population and crime counts which both favour urban forces.

"The Government's approach appears to sacrifice fairness in the pursuit of simplicity," Professor Asthana said. "We think a fresh start is needed and that any new approach needs to use a different methodology and draw on different data if it is to achieve a fair system for distributing funds."

It also argues that rural forces have to plug the gap left by other services and shoulder the cost of significantly higher round-trip distances. Additionally, officers have to take on more cases and deal with seasonal crime at tourist hot spots.

Julia Mulligan, chair of the NRCN said: "This robust and detailed report provides evidence of the underlying reasons why basing police funding on the number of recorded crimes is misleading and sets out the extra challenges rural forces face in meeting the needs of communities typically under resourced by other providers too – including social care, health and the third sector.

“Demands on rural forces differ to those of urban forces and a funding formula is needed that reflects that variation and provides for such differing requirements.

“Above all, the important thing is for all forces to feel confident that the funding they receive is fair and reflects underlying need rather than a crude calculation that is loaded in favour of urban areas.”