The Scoop

Boris Johnson faces £233 million hole in his police budget

Adam Bienkov | Monday 2 July, 2012 11:00

The Metropolitan Police service face a massive hole in their budget which they have no developed plans to close, an independent report has found.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary report “Policing in Austerity One Year On” found that that the Met face a £233 million funding gap.

The rest of the country’s police forces put together face just a £69 million gap.

According to the report:

“It is important to note that the Metropolitan Police Service‟s (MPS‟s) residual funding gap represents £233m of the total £302m shortfall, and the force does not yet have a developed plan to resolve this. While £233m only represents around 6% of the MPS budget, it has to be found against a background of high crime rates and low victim satisfaction levels in the London area.”

The funding gap will need to be filled by 2015. The force already has plans to make £537 million of cuts to their budget.

The report found that the Met already plans to cut 3280 members of staff of which 1410 will be police officers. Staffing costs make up around 80% of the forces’ budget.

The cuts will need to be made in the face of rising levels of robberies and burglaries in the capital.

The Mayor Boris Johnson has committed to keeping police officer numbers “high.”

The new Deputy Mayor for Policing Stephen Greenhalgh has insisted that he has a “firm intention” to deal with the funding problem and is “currently developing” his approach.

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