Mayor honours council tax pledge

Mr Johnson has described the former mayor's time at City Hall as 'wasteful'

The Greater London Authority's share of the council tax bill is to remain the same for the forthcoming year.

Mayor Boris Johnson's �3.2bn budget for 2009/10 ensures the authority's precept at �309.82 a year for a typical band D property remains fixed.

Mr Johnson had pledged to freeze the GLA's share of the tax and also save �950m over the next three years.

Critics said freezing the GLA precept for a year without affecting frontline services was "relatively easy".

'Wasteful years'

The mayor insisted more than three million London households will benefit from the freeze in the precept, which has been achieved through efficiency savings made across the whole GLA Group.

The measures include a 15% cut to City Hall's budget, but Mr Johnson said frontline services would not be compromised.

"Over the last eight years, Londoners have been afflicted with a 152% increase in the council tax, without any regard to waste or cost controls," he said.

"This budget outlines my commitment to deliver on frontline services and to tackle the big issues like crime and safety, whilst also providing value for money and keeping taxes as low as possible."

He added the budget also delivered on a key manifesto commitment to ensure that the element supporting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was frozen at 38p a week for the average council tax payer.

Labour group leader Len Duvall said: "Not increasing the GLA's share of the council tax without effecting frontline services is relatively easy to achieve for one year; Hackney and various local authorities have managed it with much larger budgets.

"But Londoners expect far more from their mayor."