Public sector jobs in London

London has more public sector employers than any other part of the UK: 32 borough councils plus the City of London Corporation, the Greater London Authority and Transport for London, dozens of NHS trusts, the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade and the headquarters of most government departments. Nearly all of them pay something extra for working in the capital. For NHS staff on Agenda for Change that extra is 20 per cent of basic pay in inner London and 15 per cent in outer London, within a set minimum and maximum.

The main employers

Local government in London is split between the 32 boroughs and the City of London Corporation. Each borough is a unitary council in practice, so it runs schools admissions, social care, housing, libraries, parking and waste, and each recruits for itself. A housing officer job in Hackney and one in Bromley are separate vacancies with separate pay structures. Above the boroughs sits the Greater London Authority, which also oversees Transport for London.

NHS trusts recruit in almost every borough. Acute trusts include Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, alongside mental health and community trusts in every part of the city. London Ambulance Service NHS Trust covers the whole region. GP practices are mostly independent contractors and set their own pay.

Emergency services are organised London-wide: the Metropolitan Police Service (with the City of London Police covering the Square Mile) and London Fire Brigade. The Civil Service has a heavy presence around Whitehall, Westminster and Canary Wharf, though departments have been moving roles to offices outside London for several years, so check the location list on each advert.

Schools are spread across maintained schools, academies and multi-academy trusts. Most advertise on the Department for Education’s Teaching Vacancies service.

How London weighting works in each sector

There is no single London weighting. Each pay system has its own version, its own boundaries and its own amounts.

Pay system	Inner London	Outer London	Fringe
NHS Agenda for Change (HCAS)	20% of basic, £5,794 to £8,746	15% of basic, £4,870 to £6,137	5% of basic, £1,346 to £2,270
Teachers, M1 (from September 2026)	£41,729	£39,196	£35,602
Teachers, M6 (from September 2026)	£54,131	£52,241	£48,479

With the supplement, a band 5 nurse at the entry point earns £38,488 in inner London and £36,943 in outer London, against £32,073 elsewhere in England. The teacher figures are the 2026/27 rates the government accepted from the School Teachers’ Review Body; maintained schools can only pay them once the 2026 pay and conditions document is in force, with backdating to 1 September 2026. The full breakdown is in teacher pay in London and the fringe and the NHS high cost area supplement guide.

Met Police officers get a London weighting and a London allowance on top of the national constable scale, and both rose by 3.5 per cent from 1 September 2026. London boroughs generally build a London addition into their own pay spines, and Civil Service departments usually publish separate London pay ranges. In both cases the advertised salary normally already includes it. For the wider picture, see London weighting across the public sector.

Inner, outer and fringe boundaries

The boundaries are not the same in every scheme. The NHS defines its zones in the Agenda for Change handbook, and the teachers’ pay document defines its own inner London, outer London and fringe areas. A hospital and a school a few streets apart can fall in different zones. If the zone matters to your decision, the advert or the HR team can tell you which rate applies to that site.

Low pay and the London Living Wage

At the bottom of the scale, the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, the same as everywhere else. The voluntary Real Living Wage has a separate London rate of £15.45 an hour, against £14.10 for the rest of the UK, announced on 15 October 2026. Accredited employers are expected to pay the new rate within six months. Several London councils and NHS bodies are accredited, so contractors working for them, such as cleaners and caterers, may be covered too; the employer can confirm this.

Tax and take-home pay

London additions are paid through payroll and taxed like the rest of your salary. They also count towards pension tiers in some schemes: an inner London band 5 nurse on £38,488 sits in the NHS Pension Scheme’s 9.8 per cent contribution tier, while the same job outside London on £32,073 sits in the 8.3 per cent tier. Run your own figures through the take-home pay calculator before comparing offers.

Where London vacancies are advertised

• NHS trusts: NHS Jobs, with some trusts using Trac
• Schools: Teaching Vacancies and trust websites
• Civil Service: Civil Service Jobs
• Councils, the GLA and TfL: their own careers pages (see where councils advertise jobs)
• Met Police and London Fire Brigade: their own recruitment sites

The vacancies listed under this page are drawn from employers across all 33 London local authority areas.