At a time when food and energy prices are soaring, Sadiq Khan’s announcement that every London primary school pupil will get free school meals from September is a welcome shift in both tone and substance. The current incoherent tax and benefit system is one that leaves millions of children in poverty and hunger. The London mayor’s £130m plan is distinguished by the fact that it rejects the bookkeeping approach of the government in favour of a more universal scheme.
Mr Khan’s move is smart politics. It creates a distinctly Labour offer that will be welcomed by many voters ahead of next year’s mayoral elections. Providing a nutritious hot lunch at school is also a good policy that studies show will result in reduced child obesity rates as well as improved pupil attainment. The Impact on Urban Health thinktank estimates that making free schools meals universal will generate £1.71 in economic and social benefits for every £1 invested. Crucially, the move reveals an appetite for experimentation, necessary – as the Resolution Foundation chair, Gavin Kelly, and the University of Bath’s Nick Pearce point out – to “flesh out the future of the post-Covid welfare state”.
