JUST RELEASED: Scathing Met Police report, and new worrying housing stats
Sadiq Khan is failing to tackle London's biggest problems
Dear Fellow Londoner,
I hope this message finds you well. This week has seen two really important issues reported in the news which I know many Londoners will find concerning: a scathing report over the performance of the Met Police and worryingly low figures on the number of affordable homes built.
New report shows continued serious Met Police failings
You may recall that the Met Police was placed into special measures in June 2022 following serious institutional failings. The Casey Report, released in March last year, highlighted serious problems with the culture of the organisation. Despite these interventions, a report released this week by His Majesty's Inspectorate shows that little seems to have improved.
The Met was rated as “requiring improvement” or “inadequate” (the two lowest ratings) in seven out of the eight graded areas. Worryingly, these areas include “investigating crime” and “preventing crime”, which are arguably the two main goals of any police service.
When reading reports like this, it’s worth remembering two things:
Firstly, Sadiq Khan was given £64 million by the Government to hire more police officers, but had to give some of the money back after failing to meet his recruitment target.
Secondly, the new Met Commissioner put together a plan – called the New Met for London, which set out how he wanted to fix the culture of the Met Police & rebuild trust, but Sadiq Khan refused to fund it. When he was setting his Mayoral Budget last year, he found an extra £630 million to spend, which he chose to use on gimmicks like the temporary “off-peak Fridays” scheme (which had almost no impact on passenger numbers) and renaming the London Overground lines.
With the recent scandals involving the Met Police, as well as rising levels of violent crime, keeping Londoners safe should be the biggest job on the Mayor’s desk – but he is simply ignoring it.
Worrying affordable housing stats
Turning to housing, the latest official figures on affordable home starts in London have been released. Under Sadiq Khan's leadership, the pace of building affordable housing has slowed dramatically. Under the Mayor's 2021-26 affordable homes programme, funded by the Government, he currently needs to deliver roughly 3,000 homes per quarter. However, in the last quarter, only 71 affordable homes were completed – just 2% of what is needed. Furthermore, only 150 affordable homes were started, which means that this “affordable homes drought” is only going to continue.
While challenges in the housing sector are undeniable, this huge lack of progress on affordable housing is unacceptable. The City Hall Conservatives believe that the Government needs to take action, to ensure that London builds the housing which families need. That’s why we have called on the Labour Government to place the Mayor and the Greater London Authority in special measures to address this crisis. You can read Shaun Bailey AM’s letter here.
As your representatives, we will continue to hold Sadiq Khan to account to make London safer and more affordable for everyone. If you want to see more, why not subscribe to our YouTube channel?