Sadiq Khan announces second year of free school meals in London

Transcript

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.