His political opponents may have started the New Year condemning his increase in bus fares but Boris Johnson will today seek to persuade Londoners and AMs that he’s “delivering more for less” when he appears before the London Assembly’s Budget and Performance Committee.
The Mayor is set to be quizzed by Assembly Members on his budget in which he’ll freeze the Council Tax precept for the second year in a row. Despite the freeze many Londoners are facing higher fares as a result of a new regime which saw the price of a single Oyster pay as you go bus journey increase from £1 to £1.20.
City Hall says almost three quarters of the £0.9 billion raised by the GLA’s precept will go to the Met to “help them to continue to build on to their success of reducing crime to the lowest level in the capital for over 12 years”.
Ahead of his appearance the Mayor said: “Once again I am freezing the amount that City Hall takes from London council taxpayers. Over the eight years of the previous administration, Londoners suffered from outrageous increases in the GLA precept of 153 per cent. When I was elected, I promised to put a stop to these rises and am pleased that Londoners are now reaping the dividends of strong financial controls.”
The London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee will meet at 10am on Thursday 7th January. Full details of the meeting can be found on the Greater London Authority website. A live web stream of the meeting will also be available.