Letter for publication: rebuttal letter re Cllr Cooper and policing

I think Cllr. Cooper is once again trying to pull the wool over your readers’ eyes. He suggests that as the average Londoner pays more tax centrally, it would cost Londoners more to fund the police from central Government than it would by funding through local taxation.

As a tax economist, Cllr Cooper knows full well that the only alternative to central Government funding is the Council Tax- one of the most regressive taxes there are, with less well off Londoners paying disproportionately far more of their income than wealthy Londoners with homes in the top Council Tax bands- bands   which are  set  so low and which have not been reformed or revalued since Council Tax was introduced as a quick fix for the discredited Conservatives’ Poll Tax 30 years ago. We should surely all be concerned that the Government and Cllr. Cooper wish to continue to shift the burden of police funding from Government Grant to Council Tax- which hits the poorest the hardest.

London pays far more taxes to central Government  than elsewhere.  Data from the Office for National Statistics have shown  that only three regions of the UK –London, the south-east, and the east of England – ran a budget surplus in the 2015-16 financial year, (the latest year for which figures are available –  and something Brexiteers in other regions should bear in mind when considering the subsidy they get from London, when Brexit is going to cause such harm to our capital’s economy). .A study by the think tank the Centre for Cities found that London generated almost as much tax as the next 37 largest cities combined and London’s share of “economy taxes” underpinning the Treasury’s finances is  30%.

What this amounts to is that on average, a Londoner pays £3,070 more in tax revenues to Government than they receive in public spending (source ONS).

70 per cent of the Met.’s funding is controlled by the Government and ministers have repeatedly refused to reverse the cuts they have forced the Met. to make, equivalent to 40% of its original budget. As a result, the Metropolitan Police have already had to make savings of £850m and this trend is set to continue. The reality is the Met. still has to make further cuts of £263 million by 2022-23. If these required savings were to be delivered through officer reductions, this would  reduce the number of police officers to 28,215 – a fifteen year low. At a time that violent crime is rising, this is a total abdication of the Government’s responsibility to public safety.

It is interesting to note that even the Home Secretary has spoken out about the desperate need for more Government funding in order to tackle violent crime, but ministers have failed to back that up with real money. Presumably therefore, Cllr. Cooper disagrees with his own Conservative Party’s Home Secretary.

So my argument is that bearing in  mind how much London pays in, as opposed to how much we receive from Government for our public services, it is  only right and fair that the Government  should not expect Londoners to pay even more through the Council Tax as Cllr Cooper suggests, beyond what the Mayor is already having to raise- an increase next year of 9% for the police and fire brigade. We should get more back from what we pay to the Government , to help fund the Met. and tackle the serious problems we face, like violent knife crime.

Andrew Dismore AM

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden

 

 

Andrew Dismore AM

Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden

 

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