Mayor secures 935 neighbourhood police officer posts and confirms historic £1.16bn investment in the Metropolitan Police
- Mayor’s landmark £1.159 billion investment will protect neighbourhood policing, save 935 neighbourhood police officer posts and significantly reduce planned cuts to specialist police teams – including forensic teams and the dog support unit
- Mayor will work closely with the Met police to push for the extra national funding London needs to boost officer numbers, continue to reform and fight crime
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced a record £1.16bn investment in policing from City Hall. This will help to save 935 neighbourhood police officer roles that were previously set to be lost and significantly reduce the level of cuts the Met were planning. There is still £32 million for the Met to allocate of additional funding.
The previous government chronically underfunded the Met, making cuts to policing in London that in real terms were equivalent to more than £1.1billion. Allowing for inflation in 2024, core government funding will have fallen by nearly a third in real terms. This has left the Met in a very difficult financial position. The overwhelming majority of the Met’s funding comes from central government, but the Mayor is pulling every lever at his disposal to support policing in London.
Due to the previous Governments cuts, the Met will still need to reduce its overall workforce and make efficiency savings, but the funding from the Mayor and his prioritisation of neighbourhood policing will mean that the level of neighbourhood policing in communities across London will not be reduced. This will ensure officers are visible in our high streets and working proactively with communities on the issues that matter most to them.
The Mayor has more the doubled City Hall funding to the Met since he became Mayor, prioritising investment in local policing throughout his time in office, making difficult decisions on council tax and business rates to mitigate the impact of austerity on frontline policing. Neighbourhood policing remains the bedrock of community confidence, trust and safety in London and the Mayor has been clear that the fresh funding from City Hall will be used to fund police officers, key police staff and the equipment they need to carry out their roles.
In line with the Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan, the latest budget also ensures:
- No cuts to emergency response teams, which the public rely on at times of crisis;
- Continued investment in the resources and equipment frontline officers need;
- Continued investment in the teams working to provide specialist support for victims so that the Met can continue to improve outcomes for victims of rape, serious sexual offences and child abuse and exploitation;
- Continued action to improve Met culture, with ongoing support for the Met’s Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Directorate which will deliver more leadership training, improved vetting processes, and changes to how the Met deals with misconduct and complaints to drive the higher standards;
- An extra £32 million to be allocated.
Since January’s publication of the draft budget an extra £83million has been added - £10million from City Hall and £73million from central government - for policing in the Mayor’s final budget brings the total mayoral investment in the Met to an historic £1.159 billion for the next year. Overall, there is an additional £320m funding for the Met compared to the current year’s budget, an unprecedented increase following close working between the Mayor and the new government.
This means that cuts to specialist teams will be significantly reduced compared to what the Met had been previously thought and was planning for. This includes significantly limiting the reductions to the Met’s Dog Support Unit, forensic teams and Mounted Branch. But given the scale of the previous government’s cuts, and with the reserves that have previously mitigated them having been used up, the Met is still having to make some tough choices to protect frontline policing. This includes moving Royal Parks demand into local neighbourhood ward policing roles.
However, the tough choices the Met has outlined are subject to change as there is still £32m from the funding set out that can be used to mitigate the proposed service reductions. In addition, any future funding from the Government in the upcoming Spending Review would mean the Met could look again at its plans.
The Mayor is determined to continue being both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. This approach – supporting the police at the same time as funding programmes that focus on crime prevention – is working. It has contributed to the number of homicides, young people being injured with knives, gun crime with lethal barrel weapons and burglary all falling since Sadiq was first elected in 2016. The number of teenage homicides in London last year was also at its lowest level since 2012 with the number of under 25’s killed the lowest since 2003. But there is still much more to do and the Mayor will continue to do everything he can.
While Sadiq has welcomed additional government funding announcements for the police in 2024 and 2025, it is clear that it will take further funding to undo more than a decade of cuts by the previous government. That’s why the upcoming multi-year Spending Review will be a key focus for the Mayor and the Met. The Mayor will continue to stand up for London and make the case for the investment the Met needs.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The previous government chronically underfunded the Met, making cuts to policing in London that were in real terms equivalent to more than £1.1 billion. This has left the Met in an extremely difficult financial situation. As Mayor, I’m committed to doing everything in my power to support the police. That’s why I’m announcing a record £1.16bn 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."
Notes to editors
- The Mayor’s confirmed budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group is available here: https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/mayors-office-policing-and-crime/about-mayors-office-policing-and-crime-mopac/our-finances?ac-27336=228309
- Following the previous Government's austerity policies, in 2017/18 officer numbers at the Met fell below 30,000, their lowest level since 2003. In the face of these disastrous cuts the Mayor has done everything in his power since coming to office to protect the front line, with City Hall now providing a record level of funding to the Met, double that provided by his predecessor in his final year in office. Thanks to that, and additional investment from the Government, the Met currently has around 33,000 officers.
- The GLA Group Final 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.
- 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:
- 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.
Crimes which have fallen over the Mayoralty (12-month period to May 2016 as compared to 12-month period to February 2025):
- Knife crime with injury victims aged under 25 years (down 26%)
- Gun Crime Lethal Barrel Discharge (down 38%)
- Violence with Injury (-13%)
- Homicide (down 14%)
- Burglary (down 23%)