Londoners will see an average £87 hike in their council tax bills from today as boroughs struggle with rising costs.
Median payments have hit £2,068 across the capital for benchmark Band D households - a 4.4 per cent increase on last year.
In Hackney, Hillingdon and Lambeth, payments will exceed the £2,000-a-year mark for the first time from April 1.
However, London bills are still below the England of £2,392, which is an increase of £111 or 4.9 per cent on the 2025/26, according to Government figures.
Town halls can increase council tax by a maximum of 5 per cent a year without a referendum or special Government permission. This is made up of 2.99 per cent for general bills and a further 2 per cent to pay for adult social care.
Almost all London local authorities have opted for the full 4.99 per cent rise for most residents in 2026/27, while London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has said he will be adding an extra £20.13 to his share of the bill to help pay for the Met Police and Fire Brigade.
But Wandsworth and Westminster, the boroughs with the lowest council tax in the country, have confirmed only the 2 per cent social care precept will be added to payments this year.
The annual bills for Londoners vary massively depending on the borough.
Average Band D households in London’s most expensive council tax borough, Kingston-upon-Thames, rise by £120 increase from Wednesday, bringing payments up to £2,608.12
But those in London’s cheapest, Wandsworth, have to cope with a hike of just £30, bringing their council tax bills to £1,020 a year.
There are local elections in the capital in May and Westminster and Wandsworth’s Labour leadership are both desperately trying to avoid having the council return to Conservative control.
Across the city, bills will increase by an average of £98.49 from April.
Five councils in the capital - Wandsworth, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, the City of London and Kensington and Chelsea - have been given authority to increase council tax by more than 5 per cent in 2027/28 and 2028/29 without having to hold a referendum.
Ministers significantly slashed local authority funding for these areas, arguing they set tax bills well below most other councils.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) predicted eye-watering 75 per cent increases in council tax could be seen in the five boroughs.
In its analysis, the think tank said: “The [Government] funding figures assume some very large increases in council tax bills indeed for these councils – around 75 per cent in the case of Wandsworth and Westminster.”
A record nine London councils will need emergency bailouts in order to balance their budgets this year.
Barnet, Redbridge, Havering, Waltham Forest, Croydon, Haringey, Hillingdon and Lambeth will share funds totalling over £530 million to avoid falling into bankruptcy. The Government has also agreed to provide the City of London with £2.65 million to manage financial pressures in its Housing Revenue Account.
Recent analysis by London Council’s found boroughs face an “impossible” challenge to plug a collective £1 billion funding shortfall in 2025/26, which is expected to rise to £4.7 billion by 2029.
Spiralling rents and the increasing cost of providing temporary accommodation for homeless families and social care is pushing many boroughs to the brink of bankruptcy, the umbrella group argued.
