Funding for London’s police and fire services is set to fall by almost £100m next year under budget proposals published by Boris Johnson on Monday.
The Mayor’s annual budget sets funding for all City Hall agencies, including Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade.
The 2015/16 budget, which is subject to consultation with local councils and other stakeholders, covers Mr Johnson’s final year at City Hall.
It will be considered by the London Assembly in the New Year but can only be overturned if two-thirds of Assembly Members vote to reject the Mayor’s proposals.
Spending by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, which oversees the Met and sets its budget, will fall from £3,251.4m in the current year to £3,159.8m.
The Met has already seen funding slashed in previous years, forcing it to close “under-used” police stations and sell off its world famous Scotland Yard HQ.
However in his introduction to the draft budget, Mr Johnson insists the force’s allocation is sufficient to keep police office numbers “at or around 32,000 during this administration”.
Speaking to BBC London earlier this month, the Mayor’s policing deputy, Stephen Greenhalgh, conceded it would be harder to protect that number in the next Mayoral term.
Overall funding for the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, which oversees the fire brigade, will fall £4.5m to £423.7m. LFEPA’s funding cut includes £3.2m of savings which are yet to be identified.
In contrast to the emergency service cuts, spending at Transport for London, which next year gains control of additional surface rail routes, and is responsible for delivering the Mayor’s promised cycling revolution, is set to rise from £6,752.3m to £7.066.1m.
The Mayor’s budget proposals also include cutting his share of the council tax by £4 per year for a typical Band D property.
Publishing the budget for consultation, Mr Johnson said: “My draft budget for 2015/2016 delivers on my pledge to run a lean administration that bears down on costs to ensure maximum value for London’s hard working taxpayers.
“This is a plan that promotes economic growth and protects investment into the areas that matter most to Londoners, whilst for the fourth consecutive year trimming my share of the council tax bill.”
John Biggs, Labour’s Budget Spokesperson on the London Assembly, claimed today’s figures showed the Mayor was “set to make millions of pounds of further cuts to both the police and fire brigade before he leaves office.”
He added: “In his drive for a tokenistic £4 pre-election tax cut, without worrying about the consequences, the Mayor risks exacerbating the strain on our already struggling emergency services and leaving a poisonous legacy for whoever replaces him.”
