Sadiq Khan, has announced that he is planning an increase in council tax next year as part of his budget proposals in order to provide urgent funding to the police and London’s other vital public services.
Council tax is set to increase by £37.26 for band D property in London to cover funding in Police, Fire & Transport.
Over recent months, the Met has had to bear even more pressure than usual for its national policing activities.
It’s currently dealing with the greatest period of sustained pressure on its resources since the Olympics in 2012, with a large increase in the number of marches, protests and national events taking place in the capital.
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.
Tom Edwards, the transport & environment correspondent at BBC wrote on X: “NEW : Council tax to increase by £37.26 for band D property in London to cover funding in Police, Fire & Transport.
“Transport is £1.67 a month and was part of pandemic funding deal in Feb 22. Broadly shift from Central Govt funding to more local sources.
“@MayorofLondon says the Met has a funding shortfall and covers national responsibilities so should be covered by national govt. He says forces elsewhere in the country got a 6% increase, Met got 3.5%.
“Mayoral precept on a band D increases to £471 a year up 8.6%”
The government has refused to provide the additional funding needed, instead confirming that it will be maintaining the National and International Capital Cities (NICC) grant for 2024/2025 at £185million – a real-terms cut.
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.
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?”
He added: “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.”
