The Metropolitan Police Authority and the Metropolitan Police Service have welcomed the approval of the Mayor’s budget by the London Assembly yesterday.
The budget gives a £3 billion gross policing budget for London in 2007/8.
Len Duvall, chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said he welcomed the budget settlement and thanked “the Mayor for working with us to help pay for a police service that is truly people focused, placing the emphasis firmly on service delivery.”
Mr Duvall went on to say “the rise in the Mayor’s precept reinforces the improvements in neighbourhood policing we have worked together to achieve in record time in order to make our city safer for all of our diverse communities.”
MPS Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, said that despite the settlement the force “will still need to make efficiency savings of around £95millon compared with last year.”
“In the next year, as well as looking to increase the number of police officers by another 270, the Met’s modernisation programme will continue to focus on further opportunities to free up officers for front line policing, making us more efficient and enabling us to invest effort in those areas that matter most to Londoners.”
The Met is funded from two main sources. Central government at Westminster provides around 78 per cent of the funding with the rest coming from the Mayor’s precept – the GLA element shown on Council Tax bills.
The force also receives some extra funding from central government for counter-terrorism work and the Olympics.
