Scotland Yard HQ could be sold as part of major savings plan

London: London’s cash-strapped police force today said it was planning to sell its iconic New Scotland Yard headquarters, famous for its revolving sign, to help save 500 million pounds. New Scotland Yard building in Victoria, central London, has been the home of Britain’s biggest police force since the 1960s. Now police chiefs are planning to sell the building and move to a smaller headquarters as they try to save 500 million pounds from a 3.6 billion pounds annual budget, following government cuts. [caption id=“attachment_508572” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Getty Images.[/caption] Other police stations across London would also be under threat, with five already approved for sale, as the force seeks to dispose of a third of its estate. The Metropolitan Police has been tasked by the mayor’s office with making savings of half-a-billion pounds by 2015. Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey told the deputy mayor for policing and crime, Stephen Greenhalgh, that if significant savings were to be made then a third of the Met’s property estate needed to be disposed of. Currently, it has about 700 buildings including police stations, patrol bases and traffic garages. Mackey said that, as the force faces staff cuts, there will also be more and more space at the site, which is “an expensive luxury” in central London. “It’s an expensive building to run and it’s an expensive building to maintain and as we go through this change programme it’s going to have space in it that we don’t need,” he said. “In central London that’s an expensive luxury. “It is a 60s building, so the infrastructure and support services that are in the building, I think, from the heating and ventilation through to the IT provision, is from the 60s.” “We need buildings that are fit for a modern police service,” the BBC quoted Mackey as saying. “New Scotland Yard costs 11 million pounds a year to run and we now need to invest over 50 million pounds into it.” “Despite the money we’ve spent on it over the years, it is an asset that we could use differently and better invest the money in policing,” Mackey said. Under the plans the force HQ would move to a nearby, smaller building in Whitehall. Mackey said a final decision would not be made until November when the proposals would be submitted to the Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime (MOPAC) as part of budget savings. As part of the savings plan, police stations in Richmond, Willesden Green, Highbury Vale, Walthamstow and south Norwood have been approved for sale. PTI