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Pay scales · United Kingdom · London

London weighting 2026/27

London weighting is extra pay for working in or near London, and there is no single rate: each employer sets its own. In 2026/27 a newly qualified teacher in inner London starts on £7,660 more than elsewhere in England, a Band 5 nurse gets a £6,414.60 supplement, and a Met police officer up to £9,738 on top of base pay.

By Dominic Roworth · From each employer's pay documents, checked 31 October 2026

London weighting by employer, 2026/27

What working in London adds to pay, by zone. Each employer draws its own map of inner London, outer London and the fringe (see which areas count).

EmployerInner LondonOuter LondonFringeHow it works
Teachers (maintained schools) +£7,660 +£5,127 +£1,533 Separate pay ranges; figures at the main range starting point (M1), from 1 September 2026
NHS staff (Agenda for Change) 20%, £5,794 to £8,746 15%, £4,870 to £6,137 5%, £1,346 to £2,270 High cost area supplement on basic pay, from 1 April 2026
Met and City of London Police up to £9,738 up to £9,738 South East allowance instead London weighting £3,150 plus London allowance up to £6,588 (2025/26 values; 3.5% more from 1 September 2026), from 1 September 2025
Prison officers (HMPPS) +£5,218 +£3,432 At the top of each band, from 1 April 2026
National Crime Agency £4,218 £4,218 London weighting allowance; a 3.8% rise was announced in July 2026
London Fire Brigade +£5,876 +£5,876 Advertised competent pay against the national rate (our calculation), from 1 July 2026
Councils near London £1,079 or £753 Inner and outer fringe allowances (London boroughs set their own), from 1 April 2026
Real Living Wage employers +£1.35 an hour +£1.35 an hour London Living Wage £15.45 against £14.10 elsewhere (voluntary; employers have until 1 May 2027)

The legal minimum wage has no London rate: the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour everywhere from April 2026 (£13.21 from April 2027).

Does London weighting cover the cost of London?

Not on its own, in the two cases we worked through. A new teacher's £7,660 inner London premium is worth about £5,515 a year after income tax and National Insurance (our calculation, 2026/27 rates, no student loan or pension). The average one-bedroom private rent in London was £1,764 a month in September 2026, against £1,199 across England (ONS): £6,780 a year more, before travel. A Band 5 nurse's inner London supplement adds about £4,619 after tax.

Council tax runs the other way: the average Band D bill in London is £2,068 in 2026/27, against £2,392 across England. And London jobs pay more than the weighting suggests: the median full-time job located in London pays £53,132, 30% above the UK median of £40,911 (ONS ASHE 2026, provisional), partly because more of London's jobs are in better-paid occupations. Full-time workers who live in London earn £49,789. See average salary in London.

Teachers: London pay ranges from September 2026

Teachers in local-authority maintained schools in England are paid on separate ranges for inner London, outer London and the fringe, set in the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document. The 2026 award is a 3.5% rise (accepted in full on 1 July 2026), then 3% from September 2027. Academies set their own pay, and many follow these ranges.

RangeRest of EnglandFringeOuter LondonInner London
Main pay range (M1 to M6) £34,069 to £46,940£35,602 to £48,479£39,196 to £52,241£41,729 to £54,131
Upper pay range (U1 to U3) £49,134 to £52,835£50,625 to £54,328£54,047 to £58,120£59,650 to £64,684
Unqualified teachers £23,732 to £36,494£24,909 to £38,004£27,727 to £40,831£29,336 to £42,429
Leading practitioners £53,847 to £81,861£55,332 to £83,347£58,120 to £86,136£64,024 to £92,043
Leadership group £53,586 to £148,829£55,060 to £150,301£57,837 to £153,042£63,709 to £158,863
Main range pointRest of EnglandFringeOuter LondonInner London
M1£34,069£35,602£39,196£41,729
M2£36,042£37,647£41,246£43,713
M3£38,400£39,979£43,403£45,787
M4£40,941£42,513£45,673£47,961
M5£43,529£45,070£48,438£50,666
M6£46,940£48,479£52,241£54,131

Advisory pay points from 1 September 2026. Allowances (TLRs, SEN) are the same in London as elsewhere.

NHS: high cost area supplements

NHS staff on Agenda for Change in England get a high cost area supplement: a percentage of basic pay with a floor and a ceiling, from 1 April 2026. A Band 5 nurse on the entry point (£32,073) gets £6,414.60 in inner London, £4,870.00 in outer London (the minimum applies) and £1,603.65 in the fringe. Every band, with part-time pay and pension, is on our NHS pay bands page.

ZoneRateMinimumMaximum
Inner London20%£5,794£8,746
Outer London15%£4,870£6,137
Fringe5%£1,346£2,270

Police: London weighting and London allowance

Officers in the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police get two London payments. London weighting is £3,150 a year (from 1 September 2025). The London allowance is set by each Commissioner up to a maximum of £6,588 a year (from 1 April 2025, when it rose from £5,338). The 2026 award adds 3.5% to pay, London weighting and the London allowance maximum from 1 September 2026; the Home Office had not published the new cash values by 31 October 2026, so ours are a calculation: about £3,260 and £6,819.

Constable pay pointFrom 1 Sep 2025From 1 Sep 2026 (our calculation)
1£31,164about £32,255
2£32,472about £33,609
3£33,789about £34,972
4£35,106about £36,335
5£37,737about £39,058
6£43,038about £44,544
7£50,256about £52,015

Base pay for constables appointed since 1 April 2013, before London weighting and allowance. Forces around London pay a South East allowance instead.

Civil service, prison officers and the NCA

There is no single civil service London weighting. Each department sets its own national and London pay ranges within the Cabinet Office's pay remit, a 3.5% limit on paybill growth in 2026/27. 107,810 civil servants (19.4%) worked in London in March 2026. Two services publish their London pay through a review body:

  • Prison officers: from 1 April 2026 the top of each band is £5,218 higher in inner London and £3,432 higher in outer London. A Band 3 prison officer earns £29,107 to £30,648 nationally, £32,367 to £34,080 in outer London and £34,063 to £35,866 in inner London (37 hours a week).
  • National Crime Agency: a London weighting allowance of £4,218 a year, with a 3.8% rise announced on 15 July 2026.

Firefighters and councils

Firefighters across the UK are paid on national rates: from 1 July 2026 a competent firefighter earns £40,358. The London Fire Brigade advertises £36,302 for a trainee and £46,234 once competent, £5,876 more than the national competent rate (our calculation; the brigade does not split out its London element).

Councils outside London on the national (Green Book) terms pay fringe allowances of £1,079 (inner fringe) or £753 (outer fringe) a year from 1 April 2026. London boroughs set their own London weighting, which they do not publish in one place.

The London Living Wage

The London Living Wage is a voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation: £15.45 an hour from its announcement on 15 October 2026 (up from £14.80), against £14.10 elsewhere in the UK. Accredited employers have until 1 May 2027 to pay it. A full-time year at the London rate (37.5 hours a week) is £30,128, against £24,785 at the legal minimum of £12.71 (our calculation).

Which areas count as inner London?

Each employer has its own map, so the same street can be "inner London" for one job and "outer London" for another.

  • Teachers: inner London is Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Camden, City of London, Ealing, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster. Outer London is Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Enfield, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kingston upon Thames, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton and Waltham Forest. The fringe covers named districts around London.
  • NHS: zones are set by employer and site in Annex 8 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook.
  • Police: London weighting and allowance go to all Met and City of London officers, wherever they serve.
  • Statistics: ONS splits London into 14 inner and 19 outer boroughs, which is not the same as the teachers' list.

Sources

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