More police funding a ‘drop in the ocean’ for force which costs £3.8 billion

An extra £1.1 billion for the police represents a “drop in the ocean” for England’s biggest force, an MP has warned.

Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney said that central London protests had regularly “abstracted away” neighbourhood police officers from her Richmond Park constituency, while Labour MP Chris Vince warned of a “void of experience” across the country as a result of cuts.

Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson confirmed police forces throughout England and Wales would receive £17.5 billion throughout 2025/26, up from £16.4 billion this year.

Of this, almost £3.8 billion will go towards the Metropolitan Police in Greater London.

Dame Diana told the Commons that “neighbourhood policing is the bedrock of our policing model”.

Ms Olney said: “The Metropolitan Police are responsible for policing regular and well-attended protests in central London, which require a greater intensity of resource to police these demonstrations.

“And in Richmond Park, we have regularly seen our local officers abstracted away from their neighbourhood responsibilities to provide additional support to these events.

“And this has resulted in a lack of cover on our local streets which adds to people’s anxieties about the lack of policing.”

In a report to the London Policing Board last year, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned that the Met faces a £450 million budget shortfall in 2025/26, which could have resulted in cuts to 2,300 officers along with 400 staff.

“The funding proposed by the Government today is a drop in the ocean of what is required to prevent cuts to our London officers, and this provision of funding is certainly not in keeping with the Government’s promise to restore neighbourhood policing numbers to our communities,” Ms Olney said, referring to the new £249.7 million uplift to Met Police funding.

She added that three police stations in her constituency were now shut “after years of cuts”.

Mr Vince, the MP for Harlow in Essex, intervened in Ms Olney’s speech and asked: “Would she recognise as I do that actually the cuts created by the last government towards policing has led to a void of experience in community policing, and actually what we need to get back is that experience, and that’s going to take, sadly, time?”

Essex Police is due to receive a £27.1 million uplift in funding, to £433.3 million in the new financial year.

Ms Olney replied: “He is precisely right.

“I’ve had conversations with the local police teams and what I find frequently, in terms of neighbourhood policing, is a large turnover of police officers which really affects an ability for police officers to develop that relationship with their local communities, and that lack of experience can be so telling when it comes to, for example, issues of antisocial behaviour.”

Dame Diana had earlier said: “In year one of this Government, we are starting the hard work of rebuilding neighbourhood policing and giving them the tools to do the job.

“In contrast, year one of previous Tory governments in 2010 saw the start of massive cuts to frontline policing, cutting over 20,000 police officers, baking in what many now complain of unfairness in funding, and weakening powers to deal with antisocial behaviour and neighbourhood crime.”

The Home Office minister added: “Neighbourhood policing is the bedrock of our policing model.

“Every community deserves visible, proactive and accessible neighbourhood policing, with officers tackling the issues that matter most to those areas.”

She said the number of PCSOs has halved since 2010, and special constables have been reduced by two-thirds.