London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan accused the last Tory government of “taking a wrecking ball” to police funding as he explained why he was hiking his share of council tax to almost £500 a year.
The Labour mayor plans to increase his “precept” by four per cent, adding £18.98 to the benchmark band D rate and meaning that a typical London household will pay £490.38 to the Greater London Authority from April.
This is Sir Sadiq’s lowest increase in his share of council tax bills for five years.
Speaking at Mayor’s Question Time on Thursday, Sir Sadiq said £14 of the £18.98 increase would go directly to the Metropolitan police – generating £54m for community policing and tacking violent crime.
He said he had “no choice” but to increase his council tax bill as he “urgently needed funding for the Metropolitan Police”. He added: “Keeping Londoners safe is my top priority as mayor.”
He said a decade of Government cuts had reduced the Met’s funding by “£1.1bn in real terms” and said the politicians who criticised him were the same people who had stayed silent while previous governments had “taken a wrecking ball to police funding and crime prevention”.
Full details of the mayor’s spending plans for the 2025/26 financial year have been published on the City Hall website.
Key pledges include spending £147.5m from business rates retaining free school lunches in every State primary school in London for another year.
Sir Sadiq confirmed he will also use business rates – rather than council tax – to fund the part-pedestrianisation of Oxford Street.
The budget also includes promises to “tackle crime, build more affordable homes, reduce street homelessness, improve our transport network and keep London as a world-leader in tackling air pollution and the climate crisis”.
Here are the key details from the 2025/26 Greater London Authority budget.
Policing
Sir Sadiq said there was “still a significant shortfall in the Met’s budget”.
The additional money he is finding for the Met will help it to retain 1,300 officers funded by City Hall. It means that £319.13 of each band D bill will go to the Met.
City Hall now funds a quarter of the Met’s budget, with the Government covering 75 per cent of its spending.
Previously the Government paid 80 per cent and City Hall 20 per cent.
Fire brigade
London households will pay an additional £4.98 to help fund the London Fire Brigade – the equivalent of 41p a month increase for an average Band D household.
The London Fire Brigade is the UK’s largest fire and rescue service. The additional funding is to enable it to improve performance and improve its culture.
Free school meals
Continuing to provide free school lunches to all primary school pupils in London will cost £147.5m. This will keep the scheme, which helps 287,000 children, going for a third year. The cash will be taken from business rates.
City Hall said: “Delivering free school meals has been one of Sadiq’s proudest moments as mayor and he has vowed to continue the scheme for as long as he is in office.”
Housing
The budget has committed £1.5bn to subsidise the building of affordable homes in 2025-26, or to help councils to buy back homes currently in the private sector. These homes are then rented to people on council waiting lists.
Transport
The budget includes “beginning work” on the Superloop 2 and Bakerloop express bus services, increasing the number of zero-emission buses on London’s roads, increasing the number of school streets, expanding the cycle network and making more stations step-free.
A map of the proposed Superloop 2 routes, alongside the original network. Routes would be subject to consultation (London Labour)
But the key focus will be on securing a multi-year funding deal for TfL in the Government’s spending review, which is expected in June.
The proposed DLR extension to Thamesmead will progress towards the submission of a Transport and Works Act Order, “while seeking acceleration of the programme overall”.
The West London Orbital rail link and the Bakerloo Line extension “will progress through the next stage of feasibility”. TfL will also try to bring the Great Northern franchise, currently run by GoVia Thameslink, under the control of TfL.