Sadiq Khan proposes council tax hike to tackle ‘brutal reality’ of violent crime

London mayor Sadiq Khan has said he will increase council tax by the maximum amount possible to tackle violent crime in the capital.

Khan's proposal would see his share of council tax increase by 9 per cent, or £26.28 a year in cash terms, for an average Band D council tax payer, taking the overall precept from £294.23 to £320.51 from April.

A total of £24 will go towards the Met, while the remainder will mostly be spent on the London fire brigade.

The hikes in business rates and council tax will be used to set aside £95m for the Met. This will include the £6.8m that Khan will funnel into his violent crime unit, which he set up earlier this year.

At the last mayor's question time of the year, Khan said: "The reality of the rise in violent crime and the government's cuts means I have no choice but to increase the police element of council tax by the maximum amount allowed. This will enable us to everything we can to give the police the resources they desperately need."

He said the government had already forced the Met to make £850m of cuts despite last week's police funding settlement, in which it allocated up to £14bn to the police for 2019/20.

The mayor hit out at home secretary Sajid Javid, saying he had failed to provide the Met with "real money" and had instead "shunted the cost of policing onto London council taxpayers, hitting the poorest hardest".

Khan's proposals are now out for consultation.

Shaun Bailey, Khan's rival for London mayor, said: "If the mayor is going to increase taxes he should have the courtesy to first cut all his waste at City Hall.

"Mr Khan could have made savings on existing spending – cutting PR, MOPAC, and free passes for TfL friends and family – that would have paid for more police officers than his tax hike.

"Londoners support more police, not PR."