The “rapidly shrinking” Metropolitan Police is to axe 1,700 police, staff and community support officers due to a £260million budget shortfall.
It’s a fair cop: even a record £1.16bn funding from Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan (left) cannot avoid Commissioner Mark Rowley making cuts to the Met
The cuts will fall mainly on the Royal Parks Police, which is to be disbanded, on dog units and the Met’s mounted branch, as London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan announced a record £1.16billion of City Hall funding for the police which will save nearly 1,000 neighbourhood police roles.
The Mayor also said that there should be no cuts to emergency response teams “which the public rely on at times of crisis”.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, had warned at the beginning of this year’s budget-setting process that he would be forced into making cuts to the Met’s 46,000-strong workforce.
And a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “We are very grateful for the additional funding we have received from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the Home Office.
“While this new funding decreases our original funding gap from £450million, it leaves us with a £260million shortfall and we will have to make substantial tough choices, reducing our size by over 1,700 officers, staff and PCSOs, and therefore our services.
‘Rapidly shrinking’: the extra money from the Mayor of London has mostly saved community and emergency response policing from the cuts
“This places an extraordinary stretch on our dedicated men and women.
“The Commissioner is incredibly grateful and humbled by what they achieve with increased demand and a rapidly shrinking Met.
“Over the coming months, we will be working with the Home Office, Mayor and MOPAC through the Spending Review to put the Met on a financial footing which enables a sustainable workforce plan.”
And in a statement from City Hall, Sir Sadiq said: “The previous government chronically underfunded the Met, making cuts to policing in London that were in real terms equivalent to more than £1.1billion. This has left the Met in an extremely difficult financial situation.”
Chris Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, was policing minister in the previous government from October 2022 until last July.
Sir Sadiq said: “As Mayor, I’m committed to doing everything in my power to support the police. That’s why I’m announcing a record £1.16billion annual investment in the police from City Hall.
“This historic increase will protect neighbourhood policing in our communities and significantly reduce the level of cuts the Met had been planning.
“It will also mean the Met can continue to reform and build on the crime reductions we have achieved in the capital, with violence, knife crime involving young people and burglary all down.
“However, tough decisions have been made to protect neighbourhood policing and I’m under no illusions about the challenges ahead.
“As Mayor, I will continue to work with the new government and the Met – ahead of the forthcoming spending review – to ensure the Met gets the sustainable funding it needs to help us to build a safer London for everyone.”
The cuts will see policing in London’s eight Royal Parks much-reduced, removing the experience of managing many of the large-scale events held there. The Met’s Mounted Branch is to be reduced by a quarter, and MO7 Taskforce, which tackles moped and e-bike robbers, is being reduced by more than half. “The Sweeney” – the Flying Squad – could lose its firearms capability to save money.
Last month, the Met announced that it is to introduce permanent cameras for Live Facial Recognition at two locations in Croydon. During the course of its LFR trials, since the first, in Croydon in December 2023, the police in London have arrested around 360 suspects.
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