Ken to slash proposed council tax rise

Ken Livingstone has been forced to cut by more than half the increase in council tax he wanted to impose on Londoners.

His climbdown comes in the face of a revolt by the London Assembly.

The Mayor is to scrap plans to increase the precept - the amount he levies from the boroughs - by 35 per cent because he was facing a humiliating defeat. Instead he will tell the GLA tomorrow that he now seeks an increase of 15.2 per cent.

This means that council taxpayers who would have been asked to contribute an extra £53 a year towards the Mayor's spending will now be asked for an additional £22.88.

Mr Livingstone today attacked the GLA for forcing the cut upon him. He said: "It is clear from the cut the Assembly proposes that the majority of them don't accept the scale of the investment in public services necessary.

"After years of underinvestment my budget proposed to deliver the largest improvement for years. Evidently the Assembly is more concerned with the shortterm and the percentage increase in next year's council tax levels rather than the long term gains this increase would bring to London."

Labour, Liberal Democrat and Tory opposition to Mr Livingstone's plans was backed by many of the London boroughs.

The Mayor said his new budget would still allow for an extra 1,250 police officers as well as an increase in spending on buses and other transport facilities.

His climbdown is a major victory for the assembly. Its sole power over the Mayor is that it can reject his budget with a two thirds majority and it seemed certain to be able to achieve that.