The Met to move from New Scotland Yard

The Metropolitan Police is planning to move from its legendary 1960s headquarters, New Scotland Yard in Victoria, in a bid to save cash. The 20-storey tower has been home to London's police force for almost 45 years, but, because of government cuts, The Met has to save £500 million from its annual budge by 2015. Moving to a smaller HQ and closing other underused police stations is a way of saving money whilst keeping the same number of front line police officers.

Moving to nearby Curtis Green Building on Victoria Embankment would significantly reduce the size of the headquarters, but, The Met says this won't be a problem as they do not currently use the entire space in the current New Scotland Yard.

The sale of the two-acre site could raise between £150 million and £200 million and, given its location in-between Westminster and Victoria, would most probably be redeveloped into a mixed-use scheme providing super-prime residential units.

For those of you worried about the future of the famous revolving sign, fear not - it has been reported that the sign will move to the new location along with the force. The HQ has been called Scotland Yard since 1829, named after the street it was located on near Whitehall. Since then the HQ has moved twice and the name has travelled with it, changing to New Scotland Yard in 1890 when the force relocated to the Norman Shaw Building on Victoria Embankment. Now an internationally recognised name, synonymous with The Met, it is no wonder the force wants the name wherever its goes.