Londoners should not expect more police and better transport services if they are not prepared to pay for them.

This was the message at a London Assembly meeting onT hursday, when local government and business leaders examined Mayor Ken Livingstone's 2006/2007 budget.

Mr Livingstone's draft consolidated budget for 2006/2007 would increase the GLA precept for a band D house by about £40 a year, to £297.

The 16 per cent increase, an extra 81p per week for band D, is necessary to pay for the rollout of neighbourhood police teams and help fund for the 2012 Olympics, the Mayor said.

Since 2000, the precept has more than doubled, from £123 to the Mayor's latest proposal.

This has brought criticism, especially from the local boroughs who charge taxpayers for the precept as part of the general council tax, that the Mayor cannot control spending.

But Andrew Wakefield, a south London business figure and chair of the London Civic Forum, told the Assembly's budget committee that taxpayers should be realistic about the cost of the Mayor's policies.

"The problem is that citizens don't see the connection between what they want and what it costs."

The Safer Neighbourhood plan, which would put 625 local police teams in every community in London, is a major cause of the precept increase.

Londoners should be clear that, if they wanted more police and better transport services, they would have to pay for them, said Mr Wakefield.

"Citizens want these things but they don't want to pay for it," he said.

Mayor 'lucky'

Meanwhile, local government officials said Mr Livingstone should be more careful in the way he described proposed precept increases.

"He is in a lucky position - the boroughs bill for him," said Ashley Lumsden, a Lambeth councillor and deputy chair of the Association of London Government's grants committee.

Mr Lumsden criticized the mayor for breaking down the precept cost into its small weekly increase of 81p on council bills, instead of giving the figure for a whole year.

"It's not just 81p, that's just for band D, and it is every week."

He also questioned why the precept increases had run so high above inflation since Mr Livingstone took office in 2000.