The Mayor of London is still assessing how the government’s expansion of free school meals could create savings for his own scheme, which offers lunches to all primary pupils, as he faces an “unprecedented level of uncertainty” in his budget.
Exclusive analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows the Greater London Authority could save a third of its total expenditure on Sadiq Khan’s universal primary free school meals scheme, which has been in place since 2023.
It was initially planned as a “one off” emergency measure paid largely through business rate receipts.
Draft budget documents for 2026-27 have dedicated £148m for the scheme, representing more than a third of the total mayor’s budget. This would run from the start of the 2026-27 academic year.
However in June this year, the government announced it would remove a cap and extend free school meal eligibility across England to all children whose families claim universal credit from that same year, benefiting half a million more children.
But the mayor’s staff told the GLA’s budget and performance committee in November that they were still assessing how the move would affect their budget.
The committee wrote to Khan following the meeting: “This announcement was made over four months ago, so this committee was disappointed to hear the financial impact had not yet been assessed”.
Documents said the mayor’s budget is facing an “unprecedented level of uncertainty”, with a £19.2 million funding gap.
Government policy could save London £50m
According to analysis from the IFS, the mayor’s budget pays for an additional 265,000 key stage 2 pupils who would otherwise not be eligible due to means testing to receive free school meals.
Between 75,000 and 100,000 pupils in the capital would become eligible for the government’s expanded means-tested scheme from September 2026, the IFS said.
This would represent a saving of between £40m and £50m – a third of the mayor’s spending on free school meals.
Chair of the budget and performance committee Neil Garratt said it was “concerning that the funding details are yet to be finalised, given the need to balance budgets”.
Money saved “could help fill budget gaps across the mayoral budgets, including funding the vital modern firefighting training programme at the London Fire Brigade, or investment into Met staffing costs”, Garratt said.
A spokesperson said the mayor “has been very clear that funding for his historic programme will remain in place for as long as he is mayor”.
They added the government’s funding will be considered at the next stage of the budget in January.
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