Mayor proposes record-breaking £1.16bn investment in the Metropolitan Police

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today proposed an extra £83m million - £10m from City Hall and £73million from central government - for policing in his final draft budget bringing total Mayoral investment in the Met to an historic £1.159 billion for the next year.

It means there is an additional £320m funding for the Metropolitan Police compared to the current year's budget, an unprecedented increase. This additional investment will keep hundreds of Metropolitan Police officer posts and reduce expected cuts to key specialist police units.

Last November's budget submission from the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) assumed that by 31 March 2026, the Met would need to reduce the number of officers by 1,899 to 30,553 due to chronic underfunding by the previous government, which reduced annual core funding for policing in the capital by £1.1 billion in real terms.

The Mayor has confirmed that some of the cuts the Metropolitan Police had originally proposed in November will be substantially scaled back due to this proposed investment, which will be used to fund additional police officers, key police staff and the equipment they need to carry out their roles.  Final decisions on how to use the extra investment will be considered by MOPAC and the Met, with plans announced next month. It is expected that hundreds of officer posts will be kept in place due to this investment, on top of the 420 officers funded in last month's Provisional Policing Settlement.

There is still much more to do to tackle crime in London and this proposed investment by the Mayor and the Government will help the Met to continue to invest in tacking crime locally and build on the progress being made. The number of homicides, young people being injured with knives, and burglary are all down since Sadiq was first elected in 2016. Homicides are also falling - there were fewer homicides of people under-25 in London last year than any year since 2003. The number of teenage homicides in London last year was at its lowest total since 2012.

In total, Sadiq has earmarked a record £1.159 billion to fund policing in 2025-26 – an increase of nearly 105 per cent in annual funding compared to the previous Mayor's final budget.  But despite this investment, and the extra support from the new government, the Met is still facing significant financial pressures due to over a decade of real terms cuts by the previous government.  

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “No-one should under-estimate the significance of this. It is a record amount of investment.

“Bearing down on crime and keeping Londoners safe is my top priority as Mayor and I'll always use all the levers at my disposal to fund the police, investing record sums from City Hall.

“I am pleased to propose an additional £320 million since last year for the Metropolitan Police, with £83m more since January, thanks to Government support.

“Despite this record-breaking additional funding, the Met still faces a difficult financial situation due to over a decade of cuts by the previous government. As Mayor, I will continue to work with the new government and the Commissioner ahead of the forthcoming spending review on the funding the Met needs to ensure we can continue building a safer London for everyone."

The Mayor's final draft Budget also confirms £147.5 million of funding to deliver free school meals for all London's state primary schoolchildren in 2025-26 – the third year of the historic scheme. Delivering free school meals has been one of Sadiq's proudest moments as Mayor and he has vowed to continue the scheme for as long as he is in office.

More than 43 million free school meals were funded in the first year of the scheme, with up to 287,000 children benefitting and families saving more than £1,000 per child over the first two years of the scheme.

Notes to editors

• The Mayor's final draft budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group will be published at www.london.gov.uk/budget
  
  

• The GLA Group Final Draft Budget covers the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (Metropolitan Police), Transport for London, the London Fire Brigade, the London Legacy Development Corporation (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park), the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, and the core Greater London Authority, including the London Assembly.
   

• The final draft budget will be considered by the London Assembly on 25 February, after which each GLA Group organisation will set its own budget based on the confirmed funding levels.
  
  

• In 2016-17, the then Mayor provided council tax funding of £566.7m for policing and no business rates income. In 2025-26, the Mayor is providing council tax, business rates and general grant funding of £1.159bn, a 105 per cent increase.
  
  

• In addition to investing record amounts in policing in London, the Mayor has also provided more than 500,000 positive opportunities for young Londoners since 2016 to tackle the complex causes of crime and to help to divert young people away from crime – including through his Violence Reduction Unit.  His approach of being both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime has led to gun crime, knife crime with injury for those aged under 25, burglary and homicides all falling since 2016.
  
  
• Historically, roughly 80 per cent of funding for the police in London comes from national government and 19 per cent from regional government. But due to an increase in funding from City Hall and a lack of funding from the previous government, this is now around 75 per cent from national government and 25 per cent from City Hall.
  
  

• The Mayor has put the Met on the path of far reaching systemic and cultural reform. His focus on improving policing in London led to the appointment of a new Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, the Baroness Casey Review and Sadiq is fully committed to turning the recommendations of the Baroness Casey review into long-lasting and meaningful change.
  
  

• As Mayor, Sadiq has delivered a package of measures to support the Met to exit Special Measures/Engage as quickly as possible and to accelerate the root and branch reforms and systemic change to the Met's performance and culture. 

 
This includes:

• A record increase in police funding from City Hall, directly putting 1,300 extra police officers on the streets. This financial year alone, the Mayor has put in a record £151 million to bolster policing and crime prevention in London. Since 2016, he's doubled the funding the Metropolitan Police receives from City Hall, taking it from 19 per cent of the Met's total budget, to 25 per cent. 

• Enabled by this record funding, the Met is spending nearly £480 million between 2023-24 and 2025-26 to address issues identified in the Engage process.

• Moving quickly to fulfil a key recommendation of the Baroness Casey review and established a London Policing Board which meets regularly and is chaired by the mayor to support and scrutinise the urgent reform of the Met.
• Directly funding nearly £15 million per year for the Met's Leadership Academy to support all Met leaders and line managers to raise standards across the Met Police Service. This is on top of £3 million funding each year from City Hall to improve the service all victims of crime receive when they call the police.
• Attending quarterly Engage process meetings (Policing Performance Overnight Group), led by HMICFRS since June 2022, with the Commissioner to ensure the Met's reform and improvements are on track, and held fortnightly bilateral meetings with the Commissioner to go into further depth on progress and plans with the New Met for London plan.
• Nothing is more important to the Mayor than keeping Londoners safe and he is determined to continue leading from the front to be tough on crime and its complex causes to build a safer London for all. Against the backdrop of devastating cuts to policing and youth services over the last 14 years by the previous Government, the Mayor's record investment in the police and early intervention, through London's Violence Reduction Unit, means the number of young people being injured with knives is down and there were fewer homicides of people under-25 in London last year than any year since 2003.
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Crimes which have fallen over the Mayoralty (12-month period to May 2016 as compared to 12-month period to December 2024):     
 

• Knife crime with injury victims aged under 25 years (down 24%)   
• Gun Crime Lethal Barrel Discharge (down 38%)
• Violence with Injury (-9%)   
• Homicide (down 13%, or 15 fewer offences)    
• Burglary (down 22%)