Greater London Authority precept on your 2026/27 bill

How the GLA precept appears on the bill

Open any London council tax bill for 2026/27 and you will find a line labelled Greater London Authority precept or GLA precept with the annual amount and the percentage increase from last year. On a Band D bill that line is exactly £490.38 a year. It is the same figure in every borough of Greater London, because the GLA is a London-wide body and sets a single precept across the whole conurbation.

The GLA precept replaces what would be three separate precept lines outside London. In Manchester or Birmingham or Bristol, a council tax bill would have separate lines for the police and crime commissioner, the fire and rescue authority, and any local transport precept (none currently exists in England outside London). In London those three functions are combined into the GLA precept, with the Mayor of London setting the annual amount within the cap set by central government.

What the GLA precept funds

The GLA precept funds four substantial London-wide services. The largest by share is the Metropolitan Police Service, which takes approximately £349 of the £490.38 Band D figure. The London Fire Brigade takes approximately £71. Transport for London takes approximately £21 (the small share of TfL's budget that comes from the precept; the vast majority comes from fares and central government grant). And the GLA itself, including the Mayor's office, the London Assembly, planning functions, the London Plan, and the GLA-funded programmes, takes approximately £49.

The exact split varies slightly each year as the Mayor reallocates between functions. The Mayor's annual consolidated budget is published in February with full transparency on the per-function allocation. The 2026/27 budget was approved by the London Assembly in February 2026 after the standard consultation process.

How the GLA cap works

The GLA precept is subject to two referendum caps that work together. The policing element of the precept has the same £14 cap that applies to police and crime commissioner precepts outside London, set by the Home Office. The non-policing element (fire, transport, GLA itself) has a separate cap of approximately 2 per cent on the previous Band D base, set as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement.

In some years the Mayor of London has been granted additional flexibility outside the standard cap to fund specific Metropolitan Police initiatives, particularly around violent crime reduction and counter-terrorism. The flexibility is normally granted through a specific permission letter from the Home Secretary and has to fit within the wider London settlement framework. The 2026/27 settlement permitted the standard caps without additional flexibility.

How the GLA precept scales by band

Because the GLA precept is presented as a Band D figure and every other band is a statutory proportion of Band D, the GLA precept scales by band exactly like every other precept. For 2026/27 the GLA precept by band is:

• Band A: £326.92 (six-ninths of £490.38)
• Band B: £381.41 (seven-ninths)
• Band C: £435.90 (eight-ninths)
• Band D: £490.38 (the reference figure)
• Band E: £599.36 (eleven-ninths)
• Band F: £708.33 (thirteen-ninths)
• Band G: £817.30 (fifteen-ninths)
• Band H: £980.76 (eighteen-ninths)

So a London Band H household pays nearly £981 a year just to the GLA precept, before adding their borough's own line. The borough line in inner London can be very low (Westminster, Wandsworth) which is why the total Band H bill in some London boroughs can be substantially lower than in shire counties despite the GLA precept being substantial.

Why London bills look simpler

A typical London council tax bill has two main lines: the borough itself, and the GLA precept. Outside London the equivalent bill would typically have four or five lines: the council, the adult social care precept, the police and crime commissioner, the fire authority, and sometimes a parish or town precept. London does have parish councils in a few outer-borough areas (Queens Park in Westminster is a notable example), but the bulk of London is unparished, so there is no parish line on most London bills.

The consolidated structure makes London bills simpler to read at a glance. It also reflects the unusual administrative geography: London has one police force, one fire brigade and one transport authority that span all 33 boroughs, whereas outside London each of those functions is bound by a much smaller authority. The consolidation was a central design choice of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 when the modern GLA was created.

The City of London exception

The City of London (which is a separate borough from the 32 other London boroughs and has its own corporation) pays the GLA precept but at a slightly different level. The City has its own City of London Police force, which is not part of the Metropolitan Police, so the policing element of the precept in the City is reduced to reflect the separate funding of City of London Police. The City of London Corporation publishes its own precept figure on every City of London council tax bill, with the reduced GLA precept shown alongside the City Corporation's own line.

Discounts and the GLA precept

Every council tax discount applies to the entire gross bill, including the GLA precept. A 25 per cent single occupant discount on a London Band D bill reduces the £490.38 GLA precept by 25 per cent to £367.79. Council tax reduction, the disabled-band reduction and the severe mental impairment disregard all work the same way. There is no separate exemption or appeal route for the GLA precept.

For more on London bills

London council tax bills tend to be lower than the national average in inner London (because Westminster and Wandsworth keep the borough line very low) and closer to the national average in outer London. See per-band figures at Band D cost 2026/27 for the headline London-versus-national comparison. For the other components on a typical bill see adult social care precept, police and fire precepts, and parish and town precept.