Police funding must be protected

The London Assembly has today called on Mayor and Chair of the London Assembly, to write jointly to the Home Secretary to ensure that the Government commits to a full reimbursement lost income for police in London arising from lower than expected council tax or business rates intake as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unmesh Desai AM, who proposed the motion said:

“The COVID-19 outbreak has placed huge pressures on already cash-strapped local authorities. The absence of an urgent injection of funding from the Government will have a serious knock-on effect for vital public services across the board.

“Having already faced huge Government cuts over the course of a decade, the Met Police is in danger of facing yet another era of austerity.

“If we are to continue to clamp down on violent crime, the Government must intervene without delay and plug the widening gaps in the Met’s budget and the loss of business rates brought on by the pandemic.”



The full text of the motion is:

“The total investment from City Hall in police funding was £686m in 2015/16. By 2019/20 this had risen to £1,083m. This is a record level of mayoral investment in policing in London.

Despite this, Government cuts have meant that the Metropolitan Police Service has been forced to make £850m of savings since 2010.

Londoners do not deserve to risk losing further police officers because the Government does not reimburse local authorities for a loss of business rates and council tax income caused by dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The current best estimate sets out a loss of £493m over the next two years.

We call on the Mayor and Chair of the London Assembly, to write jointly to the Home Secretary to ensure that the Government keeps its promise to do whatever is necessary to support public services to deal with the impact of COVID-19 and commits to a full reimbursement of any lost income arising from lower than expected council tax or business rates intake as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”