The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has welcomed the news that business crime is falling across the city, with Newham seeing a 7.1 per cent drop.

Overall across London there has been a 3.4 per cent drop with 2,736 fewer crimes reported.

Boris Johnson said: “Despite the challenges, London is getting safer. Not only is overall crime down but the fall in business crime is great news for companies and particularly poignant during the tough economic climate. Our hard working police officers in Newham are working with traders to target the criminals who cost business millions in losses every year through theft and robbery. We’re getting some real results and we will continue to step up our efforts in the fight against crime. “

Town centre based police officers have consulted widely with businesses in 2011 to identify and target their top crime concerns which include: anti-social behaviour, accessibility and visibility of the police, commercial theft/shoplifting, other theft and street crime/robbery.

However London Assembly member John Biggs has called on the Mayor to reverse his police cuts, saying that East London has lost 132 officers in the last two years.

He says there were 2,083 officers based in East London in March 2010. By December last year the number had fallen to 1,951. In Newham there was a cut of 40 officers.

The most recent Metropolitan Police crime figures, released two weeks ago, revealed that robbery rose by 36.4 per cent in Tower Hamlets in the last year and Robbery rose by 21.2 per cent in Barking & Dagenham in the last year.

John Biggs said: “These figures reveal the full extent of Boris Johnson’s police cuts. Rather than embracing the government’s cuts to the police we need a Mayor who will make sure we have enough police on our streets.

“The loss of officers is completely unacceptable. As robbery, burglary and theft are rising in East London we need more police on our streets, not less.”