Residents of London may soon see a hike in their council tax as part of efforts to secure vital funds to combat the city’s rising phone theft issue.

Mayor Sadiq Khan has suggested an increase of over £20 on the average Band D council tax bill, pushing the portion that City Hall collects past the £500 mark for the first time.

While individual London boroughs determine most of a council tax bill, the Mayor of London sets a portion for the Greater London Authority (GLA).

This portion supports city-wide services like Transport for London (TfL) and the Metropolitan Police. Mayor Khan described the move to raise council tax as a ‘difficult decision’ aimed at dismantling phone theft rings.

If the new proposal is adopted, the City Hall’s share of council tax for an average Band D home would climb from £490.38 to £510.51 by 2026-27, reflecting a 4.1% increase.

The draft budget announced by Sir Sadiq will need to be approved by the London Assembly next month.   

The Met Police have been struggling to deal with an increase in mobile phone theft across the capital, with recent years seeing a sharp rise.

If the plans were approved, City Hall said it would be able to put a record investment of £1.22bn into policing.     

Sir Sadiq Khanhas proposed raising the average Band D bill by more than £20, meaning the amount of council tax the City Hall receives will exceed £500 per bill for the first time

It would see £15 of the council tax increase raising an additional £60m for police, while £5.13 would go towards increased funding for the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

Data from the Metropolitan Police released last August showed 116,000 mobile phones were stolen in London last year, or 320 every single day.

There were 116,656 reported mobile thefts in 2024 – the highest number on record – and more than 50 per cent higher than the total in 2017 of just over 77,000.

The total was equivalent to 13 phones being stolen every hour – and it was 1,300 incidents higher than in the previous 12 months. Despite the number of thefts, only 169 suspects were charged in the year, and seven were let off with a caution.

The figures, obtained from the Met under freedom of information laws, also showed a further 8,588 handset thefts in January this year.

The number of phone thefts climbed to 91,000 in 2019 but dipped during lockdowns. It then went on to exceed the pre-Covid total in 2023, with just over 115,000 thefts. 

A woman can only look on, stunned, after an e-bike rider snatched a phone from her hand on Oxford Street

A duo of phone thieves seen on New Bond Street in London – as they snatch a man’s phone from his hand as he films 

‘In total, I plan to invest a record-breaking £1.22bn from City Hall on policing so that we can continue building a safer London for everyone.

‘I am also delighted that we are moving forward with our plans for the West London Orbital that will improve public transport and deliver economic growth.’

The police data showed 61,000 of victims were female and just under 48,000 were male, with the remainder not recorded.

Dr Lawrence Newport, campaign founder, said: ‘We are in the midst of a phone theft epidemic, and our government is failing to act.

‘Our politicians need to wake up to reality: they need to stop this epidemic, and push our justice system to catch, convict and imprison these career criminals.

‘Half of all crime is committed by just 10 per cent of offenders, meaning only a small number of career criminals are committing most phone thefts.’

Astonishingly, from 2017 to 2024 the total number of mobile phones reported stolen was almost 684,000.

They were estimated to have a value of £365million, based on values reported to the police by victims.

A worker was walking opposite Hyde Park with a colleague when a brazen thief, wearing all black, mounted the kerb and made off with his phone

CCTV shows the builder return into frame shortly after abandoning his chase of the electric vehicle

The number of phone thefts climbed to 91,000 in 2019 but dipped during pandemic lockdowns.

It then went on to exceed the pre-Covid total in 2023, with just over 115,000 thefts.

The type of handset most commonly reported stolen last year was Apple iPhones, with just under 71,000, followed by Samsung phones, with 14,000.

Late afternoon and early evening was the time of day when most handset thefts took place.

For example, last year saw 8,231 between 4pm and 5pm; 8,806 between 5pm and 6pm; and 8,975 between 6pm and 7pm.

The lowest number of thefts was between 6am and 7am, with 1,036 reported in that timeslot during the year.

The London borough with the most phones stolen last year was Westminster, with 34,039.

Camden came second with 10,907, followed by Southwark with 7,316.