Sadiq Khan has confirmed the biggest increase in his share of council tax since becoming mayor, meaning an average London household will pay him almost £400 a year.
As first announced in December, the Greater London Authority “precept” will increase by 8.8 per cent from April, adding £31.93 to benchmark band D bills.
Once the borough council share is added, it means an average household bill will total almost £2,000 a year - of which £395.59 will go to the mayor, primarily to fund the Metropolitan police.
However households in bands A-D will qualify for the £150 rebate announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak earlier this month to help offset rising energy bills.
Mr Khan on Wednesday announced a £10m tourism campaign to boost the capital’s economy as he set out further plans on how he planned to spend his budget.
A £7m international campaign targeting east coast Americans and New Yorkers will launch in the spring, and £3m will be added to the Let’s Do London initiative that seeks to encourage domestic tourists to the capital.
The mayor’s finances have been boosted by a £40m “windfall” following changes to business rates, more people liable to pay council tax and a surplus from previous bills.
The increase includes a £20-a-year levy for Transport for London that will be imposed for the next three years.
London & Partners, the promotions agency, will lead a campaign encouraging foreign tourists to return to the capital as the restrictions on international travel are relaxed.
Before the pandemic, London was the third most visited city in the world, according to City Hall, with tourists driven largely by cultural attractions.
Last year the number of overnight stays made by tourists more than halved to 60.8m, with a spend of £3.8bn, compared with 147.4m overnight visits and spending of £18.8bn in 2019.
The £7m Let’s Do London campaign, which was launched last year, is credited with helping to attract 280,000 visitors to the capital and boosting the economy by £70m.
However, City Hall fears it could take until 2025 for London’s tourism numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Mr Khan said London’s cultural and hospitality sectors had faced an “existential threat” from the pandemic but hoped the return of foreign tourists would be central to the city’s recovery.
He said: “Now that restrictions for travellers coming to the UK have been eased, London is fully open once more and ready to retake its place as one of the most visited cities in the world.
“However, while we hope the dark days of the pandemic are now behind us, the GLA group budget remains in a precarious position. Unless the Government fully invests in the capital, there is no doubt that I will need to cut vital services, which will in turn hamper our recovery and that of the entire country.”
Of the £395.59 paid to the mayor, £277 is spent on the Met police, £59 the London fire brigade, and £42 running City Hall and other mayoral departments. The remainder goes to TfL.
Susan Hall, leader of the GLA Conservatives, said: “As always with Sadiq Khan’s budgets, the devil will be in the detail.
“But what is clear is he isn’t budging on his plan to hit Londoners with the third largest increase in the Mayoral precept in history, at a time when so many are finding it harder to make ends meet.”
Ken Livingstone holds the record for the biggest increase in the GLA share of council tax bills, both in real terms and percentage-wise. In 2003/4, he increased his share of the precept by £50.52 ( a 29.1 per cent annual increase).
Under Mr Livingstone - who was first to be elected mayor of London - the precept rose from £123 in 2000 to £310 in 2008.
His successor Boris Johnson froze the City Hall precept in his first four-year term and reduced it annually in his second term, leaving it at £276 when Mr Khan became mayor in May 2016.
Mr Khan, who was first elected in May 2016, increased it by £4.02 in 2017/18, taking it to £280.02. In 2018/19 it rose £14.20 to £294.22.
This was followed by an increase of £26.29 in 19/20 (taking the total to £320.51), £11.56 in 2020/21 (£332.07), £31.59 in 21/22 (£363.66) and now £31.93, taking the GLA precept to £395.59 for 2022/3.
