Met to cut workforce despite funding increase

The force said it was still working on a revised figures for the number of officers and staff that it may need to cut

The Metropolitan Police says it still faces a £260m budget shortfall for next year and will have to reduce its workforce despite further funding increases.

The government has recently promised the Met an additional £118m next year on top of funding already announced while the Mayor of London has pledged a further £10m.

The Met says it is "grateful" for extra funds but it will have to make "substantial tough choices," over the next year, including a reduction in officers and services.

The Home Office, which provides the largest share of money to force, has been approached for comment.

Cuts will be 'hard'

The Met Police said it was expecting just over £3.5bn in funding in total for 2025-26, with about two thirds of it coming from central government.

This includes a newly announced one-off Home Office payment of £50m and £22m from the government to inject into neighbourhood policing.

A Met Police spokesperson said: "While this new funding decreases our original funding gap from £450m, it leaves us with a £260m shortfall and we will have to make substantial tough choices, reducing our size and services.

"This will be hard for our dedicated officers and staff but equally will have implications for policing London."

The Met said that among other efficiency savings, it planned to reduce its workforce bill by £185m.

It follows a warning from the Met's Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley in December that force might need to shed as many as 2,300 of its 33,000 officers and 400 of its 11,000 staff.

The force said it was still working on a revised figures for the number of officers and staff that it may need to cut.

Sir Mark previously suggested there could be cuts to the anti-robbery flying squad and the removal of its firearms officers; the Royal Parks Police could be axed along with reductions to dogs and the mounted branch.

He also warned of reduced opening hours for some police counters and a reduction in the number of cold case investigations looking at crimes committed "many years or decades ago".

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley previously warned of cuts to several police units

The forecast budget gap came after underfunded pay increases, the cost of maintaining buildings, increased demand on the service and a depletion of savings, he told the London Policing Board.

London's mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has increased his share of the Met's funding by £320m since last year and is to contribute a total of £1.59bn.

On Tuesday, he announced a further £10m would be raised through council tax increases, which would add £14 to the bill for a Band D property.

Sir Sadiq said: "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."

He added that, despite the increased funding offer, the Met still faced "a difficult financial situation".

Several forces have warned that existing funding levels mean they will have to make cuts to existing officers this year.

Last year, when the first tranche of money was announced, the National Police Chiefs Council said forces faced an estimated gap of £1.3bn in their overall finances over the next two years.