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New Scotland Yard sold to Abu Dhabi developers for £370 million

The headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in Westminster have been sold to Abu Dhabi developers for £370 million, according to the BBC.

New Scotland Yard, which has been the HQ of the Met Police since 1967, has been sold to Abu Dhabi Financial Group for £120 million more than the guide price.

The property was put on the market by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) in September, for a guide price of £250 million.

The site will become residential but will probably also feature offices and a hotel, according to mayor.

London mayor Boris Johnson said while New Scotland Yard would be redeveloped, the “special triangle jobby”, aka the revolving sign outside, would remain.

Johnson said: “This landmark deal allows us to preserve the past whilst giving today’s Met a vital cash boost.”

Asked if he feared there would be criticism that another investor from overseas has moved into the capital, Mr Johnson said there was no economic difference between “having an investor from Abu Dhabi or having the BP pension fund do this”.

“Anybody who thinks otherwise is, I’m afraid, completely economically illiterate,” he added

Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: “We now expect to need to be making savings of up to £1.4 billion by the end of the next spending review, including some £600 million which we will have delivered by 2015-16.

“This is equivalent to a third of the Met’s original budget so this money is absolutely vital to us.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .