Soaring UK crime costing up to £250bn a year, says thinktank

Years of cuts to funding for the police, prisons and courts have contributed to a dramatic rise in crime, the Policy Exchange report said. Photograph: Marcin Rogozinski/Alamy

Soaring levels of crime are costing Britain’s economy as much as £250bn a year, according to a report that blames austerity for a breakdown in policing and criminal justice.

The report by the centre-right thinktank Policy Exchange, backed by the former Conservative chancellor and home secretary Sajid Javid, said that years of cuts to funding for the police, prisons and courts had contributed to a dramatic rise in crime which was holding back the economy.