Full details of Sadiq Khan's new budget as mayor prioritises crime after Tory 'wrecking ball' to police
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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.
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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.
