Andrew Dismore

Yet again, Jessica Learmond -Criqui suggests the Mayor should hold a  referendum on increasing the police precept. And yet again, she refuses to say what level of increase she thinks should be balloted. In my last letter, I explained that to go back to the fully funded Met. we had with the last  Labour Government would need a police precept increase of a whopping 123%. Ms Learmond -Criqui has not proposed any alternative figure.

If she thinks that the people of London would vote for a tax rise of that magnitude, she is living in cloud cuckoo land. Around the country, there have been a handful of referendums on increasing local taxes to fund the police at a much lower increased rate, in single figures. They have all failed, as did her own crowd funding initiative for extra officers in Hampstead. Why waste getting on for £10 million (the cost of 200 police officers) on a referendum, when the answer is pretty obvious to all?

In his Budget Guidance for next year, the Mayor is reluctantly proposing to increase his share of council tax that goes directly to the police by 5.5 per cent and represents the maximum the Government have indicated they will permit.

This means that the Mayor would be able to raise an estimated overall total of £690m through the policing precept, with an additional £49m raised as a result of this proposed 5.5 per cent increase.

The Mayor also intends to increase his non-policing precept for 2019-20 by a 1.99 per cent to provide extra funds for the London Fire Brigade which has also been the victim of government cuts.

To fund the Met. properly, the Government must step in. At the Police Federation conference, the Home Secretary said that he would make funding the police a priority in the next Government budget. Yet the Chancellor, in his speech in the City soon after , said there was no extra money for this, so they are not on the same page. We will have to see where this cabinet split ends up.

Government funding as a share of the Met.’s budget has fallen to the extent that London taxpayers now meet 25% of the costs, rather than 20% before this Government  came to power.

Expenditure on the police per head of the population  has fallen faster in the London  than in any other police force. London has seen a rapid population growth in recent years, and with savings of £720 million delivered by the Met since 2010, net revenue expenditure per head of population reduced from £423 in 2012/13 to £337 in 2016/17. It is the largest reduction nationally at 20 per cent, compared to six per cent across the country.

In 2010 the Metropolitan Police had 4.1 officers per 1,000 Londoners but, after these crippling government cuts to police spending, the ratio has now dropped to 3.3 officers per 1,000 – the lowest point for twenty years.

The case for extra Government funding is clear for all to see, as is the Mayor’s limited scope to increase funding.

I suggest that Ms Learmond -Criqui would find a better use of her campaign to turn the spotlight on the Conservative Government rather than the Mayor.

 

Andrew Dismore

London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden