The Mayor of London has promised to protect funding for Free School Meals (FSM) for primary school pupils as long as he remains in post.
By Kumail Jaffer, Local Democracy Reporter
The Mayor of London has promised to protect funding for Free School Meals (FSM) for primary school pupils as long as he remains in post.
Sir Sadiq Khan, who launched the programme in September 2023, yesterday hailed the scheme as a “huge success” as he marked 100 million free meals being served to the capital’s schoolchildren.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) budgeted £147.5million for FSM in 2025-26, rising to £150.5million next year. This represents around a third of City Hall’s net revenue expenditure budget for various GLA projects.
Despite a £19.2million funding gap, the Mayor said that FSM funding would not be touched to make up any deficit.
During a visit to Shoreditch Park Primary School, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I’m really pleased and proud that we’ve passed a really important landmark, which is 100 million free school meals that have been provided to kids across our city.
“We know the difference it makes to families – for each child, there’s an annual saving of £500. Imagine you’ve got three or four kids and the difference it’s made over the last three years.
“We know children are attending school more, they’re concentrating better, they’re doing a lot better in classrooms. The parents now aren’t skipping meals to, you know, make sure their kids eat properly.
“The teachers are saying it’s about relationship between schools and parents as a consequence of not chasing school dinner debt. So I’m quite clear this policy has been a huge success and it’s working.
“As long as I’m there, this is a priority for me, as long as I’m there children who go to state primary schools will receive a free school meal.”
All state primary school children in London have been offered free school meals since September 2023 under ths scheme, meaning every pupil has been offered 435 lunches over the last two years.
City Hall officials estimate this has and will continue to save families around £500 per child every year.
Chef and Campaigner Jamie Oliver said: “Kids in London are properly fuelled to learn, thanks to the Mayor. Serving 100 million free school meals is an amazing achievement.
“For families feeling the squeeze, easing financial pressure is priceless but free school meals deliver even more than that.
“When we feed kids well, the benefits are profound – better attendance, better grades, better jobs and over 20 years that stacks up to an extra £40 billion back into the economy.”
Under the previous national FSM system, pupils in Years 3-6, or Key Stage 2, were only offered free meals if they met strict eligibility criteria.
Changes announced in June, however, will means that all households across the UK receiving Universal Credit will be able to access FSM from next September.
Earlier this week Neil Garratt, the chair of the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee, wrote to the Mayor to clarify “whether the provision of a new entitlement funded by the Government will reduce the amount required to fund the Mayor’s initiative.”
“There are many elements of the current budget that are necessarily unclear, but this particular announcement was made over four months ago so this Committee was disappointed to hear at our meeting that the financial impact of the new Government policy on the GLA:Mayor budget had not yet been assessed,” added.
Sir Sadiq told the LDRS that his team would need to “wait and see” the impact of the government’s rollout before coming to a conclusion.
