Sadiq Khan announces biggest hike to council tax possible, to tackle London's 'brutal' crime epidemic

Sadiq Khan today announced the biggest possible hike in his share of council tax which he claims will fund an extra 300 police officers and tackle the “brutal reality” of London’s violent crime epidemic.

The Mayor’s share of average bills will increase by £26.28, almost nine per cent up on current levels. This will take the Band D “precept” paid to City Hall to £320.51 from April. It is the biggest of three successive increases tht Mr Khan has imposed since becoming Mayor in 2016.

Shaun Bailey, Mr Khan’s Tory rival for mayor, said: “If the Mayor is going to increase taxes he should have the courtesy to first cut all of his waste at City Hall.”

He claims £9.3 million a year is being spend on public relations.

Mr Bailey said: “Mr Khan could have made savings on existing spending — cutting PR, Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, and free passes for TfL friends and family — that would have paid for more police officers than his tax hike.”

Mr Khan said the extra income and money raised from business rates would enable him to spend an extra £95 million on policing.

Mayoral rival Shaun Bailey criticised Mr Khan for spending too much money on PR
Lucy Young

This will include £6.8 million for his violence reduction unit that will use a “public health” approach to reducing serious crime, after more than 130 homicides in London this year.

The number of Met officers has fallen from 31,601 in May 2016 to 29,788 last month. The council tax increase will fund 300 more officers, City Hall said.

Mr Khan claimed he had been “forced” to hike bills because the Government had not given the Met the extra funding it needed.

PA

A total of £24 of the increase will go to the Met, with the remainder mostly spent on the London fire brigade.

The increase is the maximum the Mayor was allowed to propose without holding a referendum.

Mr Khan said: “My first responsibility is to keep Londoners safe. Over 70 per cent of the Met’s funding is controlled by the Government, and ministers have repeatedly refused to reverse the cuts they have made since 2010. As a result the Met has already had to make cuts of some £850m, and I am furious that this is set to continue.

“The Government is continuing to shift the burden of police funding from government grant to council tax — which is deeply regressive and hits the poorest the hardest.

“The brutal reality of the rise in violent crime and government cuts means that I have little choice but to increase the policing element of the council tax by the maximum amount allowed.”

The extra cash will fund specialist investigators to disrupt gang violence and new equipment. The hike is due to be rubber-stamped by the London Assembly on February 25.

Mr Khan increased bills by £4 in his first year, followed by £14 last year. This followed a four-year freeze in Boris Johnson’s first mayoral term and an annual reduction in his second.

The City Hall precept was £276 when Mr Johnson left office in 2016. Under Ken Livingstone, the precept rose from £123 in 2000 to £310 in 2008.

The 33 boroughs will set their share of council tax early next year. London Councils, which represents them, said that if all raised bills by the 2.99 per cent maximum it would add £32 to the average bill. Bills currently range from £710 in Westminster to £1,771 in Kingston.

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