LABOUR will vow today to “save neighbourhood policing”, after steep spending cuts were announced for forces in this region and elsewhere.

And the Opposition will unveil tough new ‘payback orders’ to require yobs and drunks guilty of antisocial behaviour to “make good on the damage caused”.

The policies will be unveiled in a ‘crime and justice manifesto’ outlining how Labour will make £534m worth of annual Home Office savings by 2018, to plough back into police spending.

The document will confirm the axing of elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) as a “failed model”, after just one term, next year.

Ending cheap gun licenses and introducing a new requirement for joint procurement and shared services can protect the jobs of 10,000 police officers nationwide, the party believes.

Each force’s budget has been slashed by six per cent in 2015-16 and harsh cuts to “unprotected” departments – such as the Home Office – are set to continue, under Conservative plans.

PCCs in the North-East and North Yorkshire have warned of big challenges ahead – while stepping back from the near-apocalyptic language used by some other police forces.

Yvette Cooper, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, told The Northern Echo: “We are committed to protecting neighbourhood policing, which is under real threat from five more years of the Tories.

“We have identified savings which chief constables will be able to use to protect 10,000 police officers over three years, with the requirement that they set out a commitment to neighbourhood policing.”

The independent police inspectorate has warned that neighbourhood policing is “already being undermined”, she said.

Ms Cooper praised the work of some Labour PCCs, but said: “The model has failed and it’s not something the public supports. There shouldn’t be just one person holding the police to account.”

She also accused the Coalition of watering down Labour’s antisocial behaviour orders (Asbos), which were replaced by new civil injunctions and dispersal orders.

Today’s manifesto will criticise the widespread use of low level cautions, with “no immediate consequences”.

And it will pledge: “Police will be able to issue payback orders, requiring offenders to make good on the damage caused and pay back to their victims and their communities.”

But Home Secretary Theresa May said: “These are the same tired, unfunded promises from a Labour Party who tied up the police with red tape and central targets.

“When we started to clear up the mess left by their legacy of debt, they warned that crime would rise. They were wrong - crime is down by more than a fifth under this Government.”