POLICE chief Charles Pollard has backed a call for officers to be given a special pay allowance - because of high house prices in the Thames Valley.

At a recent branch meeting of the area's Police Federation, the Chief Constable was told that officers believed they needed an allowance to compensate for the high cost of living in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

The move would bring pay closer to that of fellow officers working for the Metropolitan Police, who receive total weighting allowances of £2,500 per year.

Mr Pollard said: "I find it difficult to justify the fact that Met officers receive an allowance but Thames Valley officers don't get any kind of allowance.

"It is quite unacceptable that a police officer living in Old Windsor gets only the same as somebody living in Cumbria."

Thames Valley Police Federation Joint Branch Board chairman Martin Elliott said the force was missing out on a large number of recruits who couldn't afford to live in the area.

He said: "Many of our junior officers are struggling financially, especially in the south-east of the force area, where house prices are prohibitive and rents swallow up three-quarters of salaries."

Mr Elliott said the Home Counties forces should be treated as a special case, with their allowance worked out so it closely matched that received by London-based police.

He added that he would now be forming an action plan to submit to the national Police Federation.

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