The Countryside Alliance is engaging closely with policymakers helping design a new model for policing across England and Wales. Our priority is to ensure that planned police reforms strengthen the fight against rural crime, rather than weakening it further.

In January 2026, the government published its white paper on police reform, describing the proposals as “the most significant modernisation in nearly 200 years” since Sir Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police in 1829.

At the heart of the reforms are two major changes. The first is a reduction in the number of police forces across England and Wales from the current 43 to a smaller number of larger regional forces, intended to improve resilience, respond more effectively to major incidents and strengthen the handling of complex investigations. The second is the creation of a new National Police Service, which would centralise functions such as procurement and oversee national policing units that are currently attached to individual forces.

If, as the government argues, these reforms reduce duplication and bureaucracy, freeing up resources for frontline neighbourhood policing and investigations, there could be real benefits for rural communities.

Already we have argued that the creation of the National Police Service presents a prime opportunity to consolidate firearms licensing, and already there have been signs that the government is listening.

However, significant questions remain. If there are to be fewer police forces, how can we be confident that resources will not be redirected from rural to urban settings within the larger areas they will cover? What new targets and reports will be set up to ensure that rural crimes are genuinely being responded to and investigated? Where will the specialist knowledge police officers need to respond effectively to rural crime sit, and can and should it be expanded? Can consolidation contribute to more effective policing of waste crime, where responsibilities are currently split between police forces, local authorities and the Environment Agency? What will be the fate of the National Rural Crime Unit, which currently receives most of its income from the farming and landowning sector, with only the occasional ad hoc grant from the Home Office?

To address these questions – as well as myriad others from campaigners focused on different aspects of crime – the government established an independent review of police force structures chaired by Lord Hogan-Howe, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Currently the review is talking to campaigners through a range of interest forums, and this week the Alliance was represented in one dedicated to tackling rural crime.

Lord Hogan-Howe could not have been more closely engaged with the issues the forum participants raised; aside from us these included other rural organisations, specialist rural police officers and the National Rural Crime Network, with which the Alliance is a partner.

The review is expected to report to the Home Secretary in August. We will follow its recommendations closely and continue pressing for reforms that strengthen rural policing, improve accountability and ensure rural crime is treated with the seriousness it deserves.