Households in two-thirds of London boroughs will pay in excess of £2,000 a year in council tax from April, according to research by The Standard.
A total of 22 of the 33 boroughs will send out benchmark band D bills that surpass £2,000 - seven of them for the first time.
Total bills will range from almost £2,500 in Kingston, which will remain the capital’s most expensive borough for council tax, to just £990 in Wandsworth and just over £1,000 in Westminster.
Wandsworth, under Labour control since 2022, has retained the honour of issuing the cheapest council tax bills in London - and in the UK - by part-freezing its demand for the third year in a row.
Across London, the average annual increase in band D bills will be about £90 - only because Wandsworth, Westminster and the City of London set such comparatively low bills.
This includes the £18.92 increase in the mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan’s “precept” that is levied on all borough bills.
It means the amount added to bills by the Greater London Authority, to help pay for services including the Metropolitan police, the London fire brigade and Transport for London, will rise to £490.38, four per cent more than the current year.
Most London councils are seeking a 4.99 per cent increase in their share of bills – though Kensington and Chelsea is limiting its demand to four per cent.
Ten of the 32 boroughs to publish plans to date want increases in excess of £100 a year, The Standard has established.
Newham, which has been hit by a financial crisis in part due to the cost of providing temporary accommodation for a soaring number of homeless families, has proposed the biggest increase – a hike of £131.62.
A total of 15 London boroughs already charge in excess of £2,000 a year for band D bills: Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Brent, Camden, Croydon, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Kingston, Lewisham, Redbridge, Richmond, Sutton and Waltham Forest.
These will be joined from April by Barnet, Bromley, Ealing, Greenwich, Hounslow, Merton and Islington - meaning 22 boroughs send out total average bills for more than £2,000 a year.
At the other end of the scale, Westminster, under Labour control since 2022, will break the four-figure barrier for the first time but will remain one of the cheapest local authorities in the country with a total band D demand of £1,017.
The Standard has gathered information from budget plans published during January and February by the 33 boroughs.
Only Tory-run Hillingdon has yet to publish plans. Its cabinet is due to receive draft budget figures on February 20.
Taken together, the majority of London households will pay in excess of £2,000 a year - or £200 a month, as bills are typically paid over 10 successive months.
Newham mayor Rokhsana Fiaz had sought a 9.99 per cent increase, but has been forced to curb her borough’s rise to 8.99 per cent after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner intervened.
Newham – one of seven London boroughs to apply for emergency government funding – has more than 40,000 people on its council house waiting list and more than 7,000 households in temporary accommodation.
Newham has a £394m annual budget but is facing an £84m funding gap next year, of which £52m is due to homelessness and temporary accommodation costs.
Croydon, another council in dire financial straits, will remain the second most expensive in London if it ratifies plans to add a total of £113 to its band D bills, taking them to £2,480.
Croydon, which has been in financial crisis since 2020, is seeking more emergency funding from the Government, this time for £136m for 2025/26.
Lambeth is one of the few boroughs that has been able to keep its total bill below £2,000, though residents will pay an average of £88 more from April.
Tory-run Harrow expects its band D bill to increase to £2,395 - the third highest in London.
It said it was especially reliant on council tax income – which funds 80 per cent of its budget - as it received a comparatively low level of Government grant.
Barnet, which will set a band D bill of £2,035, has asked the Government for “exceptional financial support” of £55.727m to help it set a balanced budget.
A number of councils have had to reduce the council tax discounts offered to poorer residents because of their desperate search for cash.
Some councils also plan to double their charges for second homes.
