For the past two years London has had some larger than normal tax increases because we’ve had to catch-up on more than a decade of taxes that were artifically kept low by previous Councils, leading to police understaffed by more than 100 officers, road and sewer repairs overdue, obsolete software & tools for staff to do their job efficiently, underfunded public housing falling into disrepair, and so on. Added to that, since COVID the cost of everything has gone up for cities just like it has for all of us at home or at your business. Big investments had to be made.

Having made those key investments in community safety and housing, the Mayor and Council insisted on getting this year’s tax increase back to a more reasonable level and the 2026 tax rate will start at 3.4%. (And as indicated by the green line, when the tax policy ratios are applied in May with the final 2025 year end numbers, the residential rate for homeowners will come in lower than that).