http://www.cipfa.org.uk/publicfinance/news_details.cfm?news_id=28240
"Government plans to amalgamate police forces across England and Wales were left in tatters after the only voluntary merger broke down once ministers failed to sanction the requisite council tax increases. After the collapse of the proposed merger between forces in Lancashire and Cumbria, Tony McNulty, police minister at the Home Office, said that ‘the definitive answer’ to whether the government would now enforce mergers ‘is no’. Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Commons that mergers were ‘not off the agenda’, and the Home Office later revealed it would retain the option of enforcing mergers through legislation. Privately, however, ministers are reluctant to force amalgamations through, leaving the government’s plan stymied."
