Crime is rising across the country – violent crime in particular – at a time when government cuts mean the Metropolitan Police is severely stretched.
Because of this, Mayor Sadiq Khan has taken the unusual step of using money raised from business rates in London to provide an extra £60m for the Met this year.
Here are some facts about the impact of police cuts in London:
- £600m - cuts the Met has been forced to make since 2010
- £400m - further savings the Met has to find by 2021
- 30% - percentage of police posts that have been cut, down from 14,330 to 9,985
- 120 - number of police buildings that have been lost, along with 114 police station front counters
- 65% - percentage of police community support officers that have been lost, down from 4,607 to 1,591
- £700m - amount government grant funding for the Met has fallen since 2010, or nearly 40 per cent in real terms
The new funding announced by the Mayor will support an extra 1,000 police officers in London than would otherwise be affordable. However, police officer numbers are still expected to fall below 30,000 in 2021.
Sadiq said:
I’m not willing to stand by when it’s the safety of Londoners being put at risk. So I’ve taken the decision to allocate the Met funding using money collected from business rates that would usually be spent on other important projects in London.
“In order to truly tackle the rise in crime, the Government needs to urgently invest in our police forces so that we can significantly boost, rather than just maintain in the short term, police officer numbers and restore funding for the services that provide alternative paths away from crime, such as youth services.