Half of London police stations may close in next decade, Met chief says

Half of all police stations in London will have to close in the next decade without more money, the Met Commissioner has warned.

Sir Mark Rowley said the buildings were in such a “woeful” state that many would soon fail to meet legal standards because they will no longer be habitable.

In 2010, the Met had 620 operational buildings across the capital with at least 160 police counters open around the clock.

Budget cuts and the need to make drastic efficiencies saw the number of police buildings reduced to just 200, with as few as 36 functioning stations.

In 2014, the Met sold its famous New Scotland Yard building in St James’s Park to an Abu Dhabi-based company for £370 million and moved to a smaller premises on the banks of the River Thames, in Westminster.

The closures mean the average distance for a London resident to their nearest police station is now more than two miles leading to criticism that it is allowing crime to flourish.

Delivering the John Harris Memorial Lecture to the Police Foundation think tank, Sir Mark said many of the buildings currently in use were in a state of disrepair and were becoming unfit for officers to work in.

He said: “Since 2010, we have reduced the size of our estate from 620 to around 200 operational buildings. We did so to save £70 million to sustain officer numbers and raise over £1 billion.

“We cannot reduce further, and so that source of funding has run its course. Much of our remaining estate is in a woeful state.

“We have funding to refurbish the existing stations – believe it or not – every 120 years. If nothing else changes, within the next decade or so we expect to have to close up to half our current buildings due to them being no longer habitable or legally compliant.”

In his speech, Sir Mark warned that financial pressures across the Met were making it increasingly difficult to turn the force around.

He said: “Providing the right service to our communities needs an appropriate, sustainable funding model – and one that recognises the unique challenges of policing our capital city.

“Over the past 10 years, the Met has been trying to police more people with less money, in the most populous and fastest growing city in the UK, at a time when crime is more complex, and more expensive to fight than ever before.”

Heading off cliff

He went on: “We are working hard to reform but are doing so in a context where our budget is heading off a cliff.

“Given the financial pressures of the past decade, commissioners and mayors have understandably pulled every lever possible to balance the books. We can do that no longer.”

Sir Mark also hit out at unfair criticism of his officers by politicians and members of the public and explained that every day around 18 were attacked in the line of duty.

He said rather than show gratitude for the sacrifice officers made in keeping people safe, they were subject to insults.

Sir Mark said: “I was scrolling through some of the comments beneath posts about the Palestine protests the weekend before last. It happens every time we police mass gatherings a riot of noise about injustice or bias. The police are ‘useless’, ‘biased’, ‘pathetic’, even ‘shameful’.

“I’ll tell you what’s shameful: the abuse of our officers and the silence of many in authority. We should be very clear: when people, be they politicians or the public, throw accusations and slurs at the police, they put them in danger by emboldening thugs.

“Some people won’t care about that – the criminals – but everyone else should. I say to all those throwing insults: be very careful which side of the line you are standing.”