Livingstone: No Tax Increase For Londoners

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has reaffirmed his statement that Londoners will
not pay any further increase on council tax despite the government’s revised
2012 Olympic budget including an extra £300m contribution from the Mayor’s
office.

Livingstone stated that he will not increase the current 38p a week rise on
council tax laid out in the original Olympic budget and that the extra funds
would come from ‘within the Greater London Authority group’.

Livingstone said: ‘Londoners will not pay a penny more than the current 38p a
week contribution on the council tax to the Olympic Games.

‘Today’s announcement delivers that promise. To get the Games for the price
of a walnut whip a week is a bargain’.

It is likely that the Mayor will look at the Transport for London reserves
and use a £200m loan he has taken out for transport improvements in east London
to help find the £300m.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell unveiled the new 2012 Olympics budget of
£9.35bn to the House of Commons yesterday in which the demand of the Mayor’s
additional £300m investment was revealed.