Met officers 'hate living in London'

london's police officers are living en masse in villages in Surrey and Hertfordshire because they "do not like the capital", it was claimed.

Kit Malthouse, the city's Deputy Mayor with responsibility for policing and crime, made the point to illustrate what he described as a "growing divide between the police and the public, which is not yet at dangerous levels but may well become so".

Speaking to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday, Mr Malthouse said: "Police officers now, certainly Metropolitan Police officers, often want to live in police ghettos, villages in Surrey and Hertfordshire... because they like to live together."