London schools will be hit unevenly by cost of Sadiq Khan’s free school meals pledge, research suggests

Some London boroughs have warned they will not be able to help schools make up any shortfall in funding for the scheme, which will see all primary school children given free meals from September.

But in other areas councils said they will cover any excess costs, raising fears the scheme will have an uneven impact across London.

Under the mayor’s £130million scheme, all primary school children in London will receive free school meals for the next academic year.

The mayor’s office has allocated funding of £2.65 per meal – which is more than the £2.41 currently paid by the government.

But Lewisham council said the true cost of each meal will be £3, creating a £600,000 shortfall in the borough.

Bexley council told Schools Week: “The council does not have the funds to meet any additional costs associated with this initiative and this will need to be met by our schools.”

Sutton council said if schools faced a shortfall they would be responsible for meeting it. A spokesman said: “As the funding is only for one year, commencing with a short timescale and the take-up is unknown, schools will need to manage with the equipment and sites they have and manage the situation accordingly.”

Other councils warned they have little time and no extra money to upgrade facilities and increase staffing before the September rollout.

Kingston and Richmond councils, which share some services, said the “logistics of mobilising the expansion in such a short period of time is causing concern, at a time when schools are already under significant pressure in terms of children’s needs and school finances”.

But in Westminster, which already provides free school meals to all primary students, the extra funding from the mayor will be used to extend the scheme to secondary pupils. It will also top up the cash to £3 per meal.

Other councils told Schools Week they believed the funding from City Hall would cover the cost of meals.

It comes after Neil Miller, deputy CEO of London South East Academies Trust, which runs nine schools in the capital, warned London primary schools will be left out of pocket due to the “inevitable” shortfalls in funding for the scheme.

Currently children are prevented from getting free school meals if their families earn more than £7,400 a year, excluding benefits. But from September, because of the mayor’s scheme, all London primary school children will receive the food.

The Evening Standard’s School Hunger Special Investigation highlighted there are 210,000 primary and secondary pupils in London who live in households on universal credit but missed out on free school meals because their household income was over this threshold.

A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: “The Mayor’s team are continuing to work closely with schools, councils and partners on the implementation of this unprecedented policy and it has been proposed that £2.65 will be provided per meal – almost 10 per cent more than the Government currently funds for free infant school meals. The mayor will continue to call on the Government to step forward and provide the funding to make this permanent.”