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.
Leo says
How can Boris Johnson claim that he is delivering more for less ? , Boris Johnson could not tell Londoner’s for a year or more how much his Flagship Policy of removing the Bendy Bus was going to cost along with the associated cost’s of replacing it with a new Bus was going to be , have we even got a cost for that yet ?, will this delivering more for less?
I also understand that in Boris Johnson’s Draft Budget they intend cutting back on Police numbers, is this delivering more for less?, in my view, it also has the possibility of leaving Londoner’s at risk.
Is raising the cost of Bus Fares delivering more for less?
In the not to distant future we are going to be hit by fines from Europe for pollution ,and these fines will more than likely be paid for by raising council tax. Boris Johnson and others had time to address this problem by keeping and extending Congestion Zones and introducing other measures, but have failed to do so, will this be delivering more for less?
We can now see from the recent Bus fare hikes that Boris Johnson can claw back money through stealth. But I know that next time Council Tax is reviewed at City Hall after the next general election we will be seriously hammered for tax to make up for the gaps that could have been addressed. After the next General Election I beleive that we will be paying ” A Lot More for Less “, you will see!