Londoners count cost of ‘Sadiq’s stealth tax’
Capital sees a 71pc surge in charges under a ‘mayoral precept’ levy during Khan’s time in office
LONDONERS have seen a 71 per cent surge in charges under a “Sadiq stealth tax” during the mayor’s time in office, new figures show.
Mayors have legal powers to impose a levy, known as a “mayoral precept”, on the populations they serve.
Families in London are currently charged an average of £471 per household, which is the highest figure in the country for this type of tax.
The levy has increased from an average of £276 when Sadiq Khan took office in 2016. The Mayor of London’s draft budget proposals include an increase of £37, or 9 per cent.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) introduced a mayoral precept in 2000 when the mayor’s office was first established with Ken Livingstone at the helm. He oversaw the biggest increase, raising it by 152 per cent by the end of his time as mayor in 2008.
When Boris Johnson was mayor between 2008 and 2016, he left the mayoral precept 11 per cent lower than he found it, figures show.
Tory sources accused Mr Khan of levying a “Sadiq stealth tax” on Londoners and having a “messiah complex” that involves spending huge sums of taxpayers’ money on “vanity projects” such as renaming train lines.
Of the 11 mayors in England elected before 2024, just four have introduced a mayoral precept, which is charged on top of council tax. The Conservatives have pointed out that these four – Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region and London – are led by Labour mayors.
In Greater Manchester, the mayor’s precept has gone up by 66 per cent during Andy Burnham’s time in office and is now £113 per household.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough first imposed a precept of £12 last year and tripled it this year to £36. Liverpool’s precept has remained at £19 since it was introduced in 2019.
Andy Street, the Conservative mayor in the West Midlands, and Lord Houchen, the Tory Mayor of Tees Valley, do not charge the extra levy.
Unlike most other combined authorities, the GLA, which is overseen by Mr Khan, is responsible for police and fire services.
Earlier this year Mr Khan was accused of “virtue-signalling nonsense” after renaming London Overground lines in a tribute to multiculturalism and feminism.
Louie French, the Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, said: “It’s not just drivers paying the cost of Khan’s flawed ideology. At every opportunity, he has hiked up his share of Londoners’ council tax. Sadiq has broken London and Londoners are paying for it.”
Total council tax bills – accounting for the borough and City Hall’s share – in London are lower than in the other regions run by mayors, at £1,906 on average for Band D properties in 202425. This is largely a product of councils like Wandsworth, Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham charging the lowest rates in the country.
However, due to the GLA precept, Londoners have been subjected to the steepest overall increases over the past five years – 28 per cent. Since Mr Khan took office, total council tax bills are up 45 per cent. Figures relate to average Band D properties when they were valued on the open market in 1991.
A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “This election is a close two-horse race between Sadiq and the hard-Right Conservative candidate for mayor who couldn’t be more out of touch with our city and its values. Susan Hall would cancel free school meals and reverse Sadiq’s TfL fares freeze. She is a supporter of Donald Trump, cheered Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, and has promoted racist comments by Enoch Powell on social media.”