It’s official, property taxes will increase in the new year by more than seven per cent to help fund London’s $1.4 billion budget.
What will be affected:
The increase was set at 8.7 per cent during budget talks in February, but went down to 7.4 per cent at the start of deliberations before city council settled on a 7.3 per cent increase for 2025.
The hike means an extra $263 on the property tax bill for the average London home, average being valued at $252,000. Water rates will result in a 1.5% increase, and sewage rates will result in a 5.4% increase for the average household consumption.
Mayor Josh Morgan says he will not veto any changes from the city council budget talks.
The budget will be updated in 2026, where it is projected that we will see a set 6.4% increase and then again in 2027, where we will see a set 6.8% increase.
The budget will include the recently approved “renovictions bylaw,” which is set to take effect in the spring of 2025 and cost $894,000.
The budget meetings confirmed its heavily debated $1.1 million from city reserve funds that will go to keeping 90 shelter beds open at Ark Aid Street Mission. The municipality is anticipating $9 million of federal funding to help tackle the city’s homelessness crisis.
A new provincial contribution will accompany existing city dollars that will go to restoring the hoarding and extreme clean program. This program is aimed at helping vulnerable tenants, including mentally ill and elderly people, with hoarding and pest control.
Also from reserve funds, the city will provide $600,000 over two years to the downtown business district for street cleaning and graffiti removal. At an additional cost of $808,000 plus benefits, the city will also hire seven permanent parks staff.
What is to come:
“We collect nine cents on every tax dollar, and yet we’re responsible for over 60 percent of the infrastructure in this country,” said Mayor Josh Morgan. “Municipalities cannot continue to have tax increases of this level across the country.”
Morgan also said that in order to further bring down tax hikes, they will need to have serious discussions about the services London provides, suggesting service cuts might be necessary to prevent another hike next year.
“We are going to have to shift from managing services into considering actual cuts and reductions of service levels,” Morgan admitted. “I think you will see council do that through the SORWG (Strategic Opportunities Review Working Group) and the other mechanisms that we set up in preparation for the 2026 budget.”
The mayor added he will also continue to work with other municipalities to strike a new funding arrangement for municipalities to address the rising demand for services and limited income sources, “We need a new fiscal deal with the provinces and the federal governments because municipalities cannot continue to have tax increases of this level across the country.”
