Sadiq Khan announces plan to increase council tax by £37.26 for band D homes in London

Mr Khan said he had been left with “little choice” but to propose the hike as the Government had failed to provide enough funding for the Metropolitan Police Service, the London Fire Brigade and Transport for London.

Policing in London will get just over half the percentage increase in funding next year compared to the rest of the country, the Mayor said, as the Government is maintaining the National and International Capital Cities (NICC) grant for 2024/2025 at £185million – a real-terms cut.

The Met has said the annual funding shortfall to support the additional costs of policing a capital city is now around £240million.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The last thing I want to do is increase council tax, but against the backdrop of the government’s refusal to provide enough support for London’s essential public services, I have no viable alternative but to use all the levers at my disposal to provide urgent funding from City Hall, particularly for the police.

“The Government has announced that policing in London is set to get just over half the percentage increase in funding compared to the rest of the country.

“How can this be right when the Met has had to undertake a huge amount of national policing activities over recent months without any additional funding from the government?

“This is putting an enormous strain on an already stretched police service. That’s why I’m having to step in with additional funding from City Hall to ensure the police in London can bear down on violent crime, continue to reform and make our city safer.

“We are going through a challenging time in London due to the state of the national economy, the impact of austerity and the cost-of-living crisis.

“But I’m confident that this budget will not only support and improve our public services in our city, but help us to continue building a fairer, greener and safer London for everyone.”

The Mayor is required to formally propose council tax levels for 2024/25 in January.

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However, he said as the government's recent policy statements show London's key public services will be underfunded, he would use a consultation budget to be upfront with Londoners and announce now that council tax will need to rise.

The Mayor is planning to increase the policing precept part of council tax by £13 per year, the equivalent of £1.08 per month for band D properties.

In his proposals, the Mayor also plans an increase of 2.99 per cent in the non-police precept, allocated to the London Fire Brigade. For a Band D household, this is the equivalent of an extra 36 pence per month.

The Mayor said that while providing temporary funding during the pandemic and some short-term funding for key transport infrastructure in London, the government has left Transport for London (TfL) with a significant funding gap and has insisted that the Mayor raises additional revenue as a condition of emergency COVID-19 funding deals.

Mr Khan said Ministers have explicitly proposed that he raises council tax to do this, meaning that, as previously announced, there is "no viable alternative" but to plan to raise council tax by the equivalent of £1.67 a month (Band D) next year for transport, as approved by the government.