Sadiq Khan challenged over his decision to raise council tax in City Hall row
Share:
.png?width=1200&auto=webp&quality=75)
Sir Sadiq Khan has defended his latest planned council tax increase after facing questions from City Hall Conservatives about the sharp rise bill-payers have seen over the course of his mayoralty. The Labour mayor blamed the last Tory Government’s austerity programme and said he had been forced to attempt to plug the financial gap, adding that “one budget is not going to undo 14 years of cuts”.
Sir Sadiq is preparing to increase his portion of council tax by four per cent, which will add £18.98 to a benchmark band D annual bill, taking the mayor’s share from £471.40 to £490.38. It is the mayor’s lowest increase for five years - but it still means his portion of council tax will be more than £200 higher than the annual band D precept of £276 that he inherited in 2016 from his Conservative predecessor, Boris Johnson.
The bulk of the increase - £14 – will go directly to the Metropolitan Police to help to keep 1,300 neighbourhood officers funded by City Hall on patrol and tackle violent crime and robbery. The remaining £4.98 will go to the London Fire Brigade. At a London Assembly meeting on Thursday however, the mayor was asked by Tory assembly member Alessandro Georgiou: “What alternative funding sources did you explore before deciding to increase your precept, such as seeking additional central Government funding or re-allocating funds from other parts of the budget?”.
Mr Georgiou added that the mayoral council tax precept had increased by more than 75 per cent since Sir Sadiq took office nine years ago, and he asked if the mayor will “speak to your mates in this commie new Government and [ask] whether they’ll give you money, as you promised they would”.
