Vigilance can report that the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) today, Monday 20 May, announced that they are joining forces with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to give architects the opportunity to design the MPS's new headquarters.  It was gathered under major plans to update its underused and outmoded estate and reinvest the savings in frontline policing, the Met is selling off its current headquarters, New Scotland Yard (NSY). Today, it was announced that the former Whitehall police station on Victoria Embankment - known as the Curtis Green Building and owned by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) - will become 'Scotland Yard', the Met's new headquarters in 2015 and will host the famous revolving sign.

A police source said the cost of the MPS remaining in New Scotland Yard would run into the tens of millions of pounds, with £50 million needed to bring the outdated facilities up to the condition where they were fit for purpose for modern operational policing, and annual running costs of £11 million, adding the Curtis Green site which has been empty for two years, and is in the heart of Westminster, will be an exemplar of modern day policing facilities. The competition with RIBA will invite architects from around the world to produce a design which will help transform the building into a modern, well equipped and efficient new Headquarters fit for the 21st century.

The move from NSY forms just one part of this milestone strategy which also details plans to exit around 300,000 square metres (one third) of MOPAC's estate over the next three years. This will save £85 million per year on running costs by 2015/16 (compared with 2009) and £60 million will be reinvested in the estate and infrastructure to support the frontline and help keep officer numbers high.

The source also said the plan announced by the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Stephen Greenhalgh and the Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey would provide up to 950 modern cells to help reduce the time it takes to process people in custody and the sale of up to 200 buildings - the vast majority of which have no public access.

Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Stephen Greenhalgh said: "Selling off underutilised and unoccupied buildings will cut the running costs of the Met's estate by £60 million, which will pay for 1200 extra police officers across London's boroughs over the next three years.”

DMPC Greenhalgh added: 'This strategy should generate at least £300 million, which will be ploughed back into the remaining buildings so that a run down, largely Victorian police estate is fit for the 21st century."

Deputy Commissioner of the MPS, Craig Mackey, enthused: "This is the most significant transformation of the police estate in the history of the MPS. The changes proposed will help us to save on running costs and sell properties that are no longer required, allowing us to invest in modern facilities that are fit for our officers, staff and the public.