Mayor of London announces additional funding for Met Police

The Mayor of London has announced an additional £151 million for policing and crime prevention as part of his final draft budget for 2024-25.

An additional £48.9 million has been earmarked in addition to £88.4 million, which was announced last month plus £7.2m following the end of COVID-19 funding repayments, to support the Met police in 2024-25.

There is also an additional £6.5m to support the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) across the next two years.

According to the Mayor of London, analysis shows that compared to 2010-11, Government funding for the Met has only increased by 2 per cent in cash term, which in real terms, is a funding cut of over £1 billion, or a 32.4 per cent real terms reduction using December 2023 inflation figures.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Bearing down on crime and keeping Londoners safe is my top priority as Mayor. That’s why I’m proud to be announcing that we’ll be investing a record £1.148bn in policing this year from City Hall. This means we will be providing more than double the amount of funding for the police and crime prevention compared to when I first became Mayor.

“The reality is the Government continues to chronically underfund policing in London so I’m having to step in and use all the levers at my disposal to provide the urgent additional funding needed.

“As well as more money for the police, I’m also announcing an additional £6.5m for London’s Violence Reduction Unit so we can take more action to help divert young Londoners away from gangs and crime. This is part of my approach of being both tough on crime and tough on the complex cause of crime as we work to build a safer London for everyone.”

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