During a public meeting at City Hall, Met Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey told the deputy mayor for policing and crime, Stephen Greenhalgh that the building “costs £11m a year to run and we now need to invest over £50m into it.”
Property experts say a sale could fetch £125-135m.
If the sale goes ahead the Met HQ would move to the Curtis Green building on the Embankment which the force had previously planned to sell.
The move would be tied to a scaling down of the Met’s head office functions as the proposed new HQ can house just 600 staff compared to the 3,000 currently based at Scotland Yard.
Before the building can be sold the Met must bring a formal costed proposal to the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, which is headed by Mr Greenhalgh and who said the plan had the backing of his team.
The sale of Scotland Yard is the latest proposal to help the capital’s police force cut costs in order to meet Mayor Boris Johnson’s budget cuts.
Last week the Mayor told Mr Greenhalgh he was happy to consider allowing Police officer numbers to fall. He has previously expressed willingness to privatise parts of the force.
Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe has warned that the budget cuts would reduce support for frontline officers.
Old Bill says
So Boris and Stephen
Will the sergeants being used in the Met as diary keepers and bag-carriers for Superintendents and drivers at the yard now be stopped ? and will the sergeants be put back on the streets where they belong ?46k is bit much to command a salary like this when chauffeurs and PA’s come a lot less expensive in the real world
Mr Meadow says
Why does all this send a shiver down my spine ?