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Sadiq Khan announces second year of free school meals in London
Evening Standard
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1/9/2024
Sadiq Khan announces second year of free school meals in London
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News
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00:00
Free school meals has been a very popular policy of the last few months,
00:02
but you had refused to confirm whether or not it would be extended.
00:06
Did you ever seriously consider not extending it in an election year?
00:10
I've been quite clear in relation to being candidate Londoners about how I'm going to
00:15
pay for things. And so last year, we were able to find £135 million this time last year,
00:20
because of the way we've been prudent with our budget. We set our budget for this year.
00:26
And it's the case that a combination of business rates being more buoyant than we expected,
00:31
but also some reserves, we've managed to find £140 million, £5 million more than last year,
00:36
to pay for these universal free school meals to be extended by another year, until July 2025.
00:42
But frankly speaking, it shouldn't be us having to pay for universal free school meals,
00:46
it should be the government.
00:47
Is that how this policy is going to work, though,
00:49
year on year waiting for certainty on whether you will have funding to extend it again?
00:53
Yeah, one of the problems we have is there are some sources of income that are recurring.
00:57
And there are some that are one off. And we also got this additional problem of
01:01
keeping an eye on the reserves, for obvious reasons. We know from the government,
01:05
they'll be changing very soon, a local government funding formula. We know there's going to be a
01:09
review shortly of business rates for attention. So what I can't do is commit to things that are
01:14
in perpetuity, when I've got a recurring source of income. So I'm afraid the bad news is,
01:19
I can't say to Londoners I'll be providing universal free school meals in perpetuity.
01:25
What I can do is continue to be candid and straight with Londoners and say,
01:29
I found the money for 2024-25. We're going to make sure we finish 2023-2024. But the good news,
01:35
the great news is that this lifeline is going to be extended for another academic year.
01:39
You've also increased the amount of funding for individual meals up to £3 from 2065.
01:45
Was that done in recognition of that funding not being enough?
01:47
It's one of the things that we've done is to continue to listen and engage with
01:51
schools and boroughs. So the government gives £2.41 per meal. We announced we would give
01:59
an increase to £2.65 a meal. I'm really pleased the government increased their amount of
02:03
contribution to £2.53. I've recognised though that the circumstances next academic year,
02:08
2024-25, could mean that that £2.65, which in and of itself is bigger than what the government pays,
02:14
may not be enough. So I've increased by more than 18.5% what the government gives,
02:19
increased from this year to next year by more than 13% what we give, but also put some money
02:24
aside in case there are contingencies which we've got to dip into.
02:27
You've said that this is one of your proudest days as Mayor. You're setting out your stool
02:31
for a third term. Can we expect any other big announcements over the coming weeks?
02:35
Nice try. Wait for the manifesto in relation to what we're going to offer in the third term,
02:41
but also wait until the draft budget is published next week in relation to what we've been able to
02:45
do. I hope Londoners will know from my track record, you know, I've got the means to do so.
02:50
I do things like freezing fares. I do things like prioritising universal free school meals.
02:55
It's really important that we recognise that we've got to make sure we use the money we've got,
02:59
the final money we've got, to continue to make our city safer, more prosperous,
03:03
more affordable and fairer as well.
03:05
wrong.
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