NEARLY nine in 10 crimes reported to police are never solved, research has found, as communities continue to bear the brunt of devastating Tory cuts during the cost-of-living crisis.

Labour analysis of the latest crime figures showed 4.7 million cases have gone unsolved this year.

Nearly half are due to police failing to find a suspect, its study found.

Unison raised public safety fears in June this year as the union warned that forces in England and Wales could face a combined budget shortfall of almost £721m by 2026.

Shopworkers’ union Usdaw has also warned that three-quarters of shop staff faced abuse at work amid a breakdown in law and order.

Ministers have been urged to address the underlying reasons for the rise in crime, with experts blaming austerity policies for a huge increase in inequality during the cost-of-living crisis.

Labour’s analysis has now found that 4,772,503 crimes reported in the 12 months leading up to Unison’s June warning have gone unsolved. 

Of those, 1.7 million were violent crimes, 1.6 million were thefts and almost half a million were criminal damage and arson, with more than half a million public order offences also going unpunished, the party said. 

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said:  “This is the Tories’ disgraceful record on law and order.

“Across the UK are millions of victims of crime who have been failed by a criminal justice system that has been destroyed by the Conservatives.  

“The Home Secretary has no plan to turn this around and is instead obsessed with gimmicks, rather than a serious plan to catch more criminals. In the meantime, criminals are being let off and victims are being let down.”

She pitched for the “law and order” vote promising more police officers. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he will allow repressive new laws giving police extra powers to crush protests will be allowed to “bed in” under a Labour government.

Analysis of Home Office figures revealed more than 500 cases a day were closed without a suspect being identified in England and Wales — a 32 per cent year-on-year rise and a five-year high.

The number of PCSOs has fallen from 16,814 in 2009 to 8,263 now.