Burglary in Hackney up 8.9% - but Home Office plans more funding cuts

Hackney Council is calling on the Government to halt further cuts to London’s police budgets, after crime figures in the borough increased by 6.4 per cent this year – at twice the capital’s average.

Burglary has soared - up by 8.9 pc, while violence against the person is up 5.5 pc.

Hackney has been the hardest hit since 2010 when the government ordered the Met to make £1bn worth of cuts.

The borough has seen the biggest percentage reduction of police officers, down to 578 from 770 in 2010.

Further funding cuts are expected this month when the Home Office is set to change the way the overall policing budget is divided, with plans to divert funding out of London.

The council’s crime chief, Cllr Caroline Selman, said: “Any further regressive and short-sighted cuts to London’s police service will put the safety of the capital and its residents at risk.

“Hackney and the wider Metropolitan Police force needs adequate funding and staffing to be able to cut crime and keep communities safe, now and in the future.”

But a Home Office spokesman said the Met already has the resources it needs to police London and is the best funded force in the country.

“The force has more funding per head of population than anywhere else in the country, and a quarter of all police officers in England and Wales work for the Met,” they said.

“What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are.”