From what I gathered. It's mostly a bunch of decrees coming down from central government. "Cost savings" from people who don't have day to day interactions with the police ok the street.

E.g. buying a dedicated forensics vehicle, in one hit was not allowed. They cost too much. However, contracting for 1, on a case by case basis is fine. Despite the average cost being 1-2x the cost of a new one per year (they apparently last at least 10 years).

Wage pressure also makes them choose between more officers or paying the existing ones better. When there is a hard limit of the number of officers needed, the officers get screwed.

Oh 100% and I say that as someone from the UK