London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee to publish report into police funding

London’s population continues to grow by just over 100,000 every year ^[1]. and the crime rate shows no sign of slowing ^[2]

The Met’s budget for 2017-18 is £3.269 billion ^[3]. 70 per cent of that is provided by the Home Office - but no extra funding has been provided for the cost of the recent terrorist attacks.

The Met has made £600 million of savings over the past four years and is planning to make another £443 million ^[4] of savings by 2020-21. The Met does not know yet where £185 million of these savings will come from.

The London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee publishes its report into police funding tomorrow. ‘Who´s paying the Bill? ‘makes a number of recommendations to the Mayor and the Government:

• The Mayor should petition the Home Office to change Police Special Grant criteria so that the Met can be reimbursed for extraordinary events such as the London Bridge terror attack or the Grenfell fire.
• The Mayor should highlight the Home Office’s lack of transparency surrounding the Funding Formula
• The Mayor should consider whether to raise council tax by the maximum he can without a referendum (1.99 per cent) to provide additional funding to the Met.
• The Mayor should reconsider his target to have 32,000 police officers, the numbers should be set by evidence based on the level of service required across London.
• The Met and MOPAC should consider whether they can use a “retained police officer” scheme to improve workforce flexibility.

Gareth Bacon AM, Chairman of the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee said:

“For years, the Met has been telling us that it expects to make significant savings through its Digital Policing strategy, but we recently learned that it has removed all £38m of digital savings to 2020-2021. These savings appear to have disappeared overnight.  We need an action plan to get back on track otherwise we won’t be able to afford more officers on our streets.

When it comes to police officers themselves, the Met and MOPAC need to be realistic. As things stand, the Met cannot afford 32,000 police officers and the Mayor needs to recognise that. Plans must be developed now for how it will deliver its necessary savings, support front-line policing, and balance the books in 2018-19.”

Notes for Editors:

1. London Datastore, London Population Projection, 2016
2. MOPAC Monthly Report, Agenda for 21 June 2017 Police and Crime Committee, Agenda Item 9
3. GLA consolidated budget and component budgets 2017-18
4. https://www.met.police.uk/globalassets/foi-media/priorities_and_how_we_are_doing/corporate/mps_business_plan_2017_2018.pdf
5. Read the report (attached)