UNEMPLOYMENT is rising and jobs are scarce, but no-one has yet applied for a prime £85,000-a-year job that needs no previous experience, no flashy CV, and no credentials.

Direct elections for Thames Valley Police’s commissioner will be held for the first time in November, with the winning candidate deciding how crime is tackled across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

And anyone can throw their hat into the ring, so long as they have never been jailed and are over 18.

The only requirement to get the job is a few thousand votes on November 15.

But to date, not a single candidate has expressed an interest in the role.

The new posts, created by the coalition Government, will put unprecedented power in a single civilian to determine how best to prevent and reduce crime.

The Home Office describes the job as being “the voice of the people” and holding senior officers to account.

Thames Valley Police Authority (TVPA) member and Conservative county councillor Keiron Mallon said: “Although there is speculation, no-one has put themselves forward in the Thames Valley area either as an independent or from a political party.

“Everyone is keeping their powder dry and politicial parties will have their own processes to go through.”

Last year, the Review Body on Senior Salaries recommended payment of £85,000 a year for the Thames Valley role.

The successful candidate will oversee policing for 2.18 million people across the 2,200 square miles of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, in what is the largest non-metropolitan police force in the England.

But they will have to compete with an unusual political make-up. Rural areas across the three counties are strongly Conservative, but there are big pockets of Labour support in the two main urban areas, Reading and Oxford.

Those two parties are expected to field candidates, but at the end of last year, the Liberal Democrat federal executive decided not to centrally fund party candidates, partly because of the cost of fighting the elections.

High-profile potential candidates elsewhere in the country include Iraq War officer Col Tim Collins, former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross, and Helen Newlove, whose husband Garry was murdered outside his Warrington home in 2007.

A Comres poll in November found that only 27 per cent of people knew the elections were taking place.

Mr Mallon, who did not rule out standing, said: “There is a job to be done to make people aware of the changes and of the powers of the new police and crime commissioners, which will have the power to affect them.”