Mayor of London proposes extra £83 million Met Police investment

The Mayor of London has proposed an extra investment of £83 million for policing in his final draft budget. £10 million will come from City Hall and £73 million from central government. This would bring total Mayoral investment in the Met to an historic £1.159 billion for the next year.

The boost would mean an additional £320m funding for the Metropolitan Police compared to the current year’s budget. It is hoped this will keep hundreds of Metropolitan Police officer posts and reduce expected cuts to key specialist police units.

The budget submission from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) from November 2024 assumed that by 31 March 2026, the Met would need to reduce the number of officers by 1,899 to 30,553 due to chronic underfunding by central government, which reduced annual core funding for policing in the capital by £1.1 billion in real terms.

The Mayor has confirmed that some of the cuts the Metropolitan Police had originally proposed in November could be scaled back due to this proposed investment, which will be used to fund additional police officers, key police staff and equipment.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “No-one should under-estimate the significance of this. It is a record amount of investment.

“Bearing down on crime and keeping Londoners safe is my top priority as Mayor and I’ll always use all the levers at my disposal to fund the police, investing record sums from City Hall.

“I am pleased to propose an additional £320 million since last year for the Metropolitan Police, with £83m more since January, thanks to Government support.

“Despite this record-breaking additional funding, the Met still faces a difficult financial situation due to over a decade of cuts by the previous government. As Mayor, I will continue to work with the new government and the Commissioner ahead of the forthcoming spending review on the funding the Met needs to ensure we can continue building a safer London for everyone."