The Mayor of London is reportedly facing heat over hiring 6,000 new police officers by March, as the Mayoralty runs scare on funds due to the impact of Covid-19. In the meantime, Metropolitan Police budget has a projected £1bn black hole over the next three years.
The London Assembly’s Budget and Performance Committee has asked Sadiq Khan to explain why he is pushing on with the recruiting push in his 2020-21 budget, which would push the Met severely into the red if the government does not provide more funding. The extra police in the mayor’s budget are a part of Boris Johnson’s drive to recruit 20,000 more police across England and Wales by 2022-23. The London Assembly report states that the Mayor had no “credible plan B” to pay for the new officers if government funding is not made available.
A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan said the claims from the committee were “disingenuous”. Speaking to City AM, they said, “Both the mayor and the Met Commissioner believe London needs 6,000 additional police officers to tackle violent crime in the capital – yet the government’s short-termist approach to funding not only makes it difficult to budget for next year and beyond, but hampers our efforts to tackle crime in London. The reality is the Met recruited its full allocation of 1,369 this year and will soon begin the recruitment of the same number of officers next year.
“We desperately need government to invest in our police after a decade of damaging cuts and with the city in the midst of a global pandemic, but the government has instead chosen to shift even more of the burden onto London taxpayers through an above-inflation council tax rise.”
The Mayor has asked the Metropolitan police to make savings of £25m over the next year, after the Covid-19 crisis created a black hole in City Hall’s budget. This shortfall in the Met’s budget is projected to increase substantially each year over the next three years, before reaching £455.3m in 2023-24.
The Mayor has also been urged to take action to help homeowners in the capital living in buildings with potentially dangerous cladding. Another report published by the London Assembly has warned that homeowners in cladded blocks need additional support. London Assembly members have called for Mr Khan to establish a service to provide legal and mental health support to residents affected by the cladding crisis. They said London residents were at particular risk because many high-rise properties are overcrowded.
