18 July 2003
Businesses will be called on to make up a multibillion pound gap in the funding of the London Crossrail project, approved in principle by Transport Secretary Alistair Darling on July 14.
The line, first proposed in 1989, would in its present form link Heathrow Airport and Kingston-upon-Thames in west London with the Channel Tunnel link station at Ebbsfleet in Kent, and with Shenfield in Essex.
Its object is to improve links to Heathrow, Docklands and the new development areas east of London, and to improve commuter flows by easing pressure on London Underground services.
Darling put its cost at £10bn and said: 'If the project were to go ahead there would need to be a very substantial contribution from London's business community'.
London First, which represents the capital's major businesses, is to talk to ministers about raising the cash. But Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics' Greater London Group, doubted this would suffice.
He said: 'The government appeared to point to securing finance from the private sector but it would not be a matter of rattling the charity box, but of a consistent tax.
'That could be a levy on business rates in London or a tax on the increase in rateable values of land when it is built. It is very unclear how the government imagines it will be done.'
A spokesman for Crossrail, a joint venture between the Strategic Rail Authority and Transport for London, said its business case included work on funding, but refused to describe what was proposed.
The Department for Transport said: 'It can be financed from fares, business contributions or from taxpayers, with a small amount coming from developments over stations and so forth. The options are there but we must talk to the Treasury first.'
- London Mayor Ken Livingstone finally took over London Underground on July 15 after losing his lengthy battle against the public-private partnership for the system's maintenance and upgrading.
Livingstone said the PPP 'will make the management and improvement of the system more difficult'. A new management team led by US freight rail expert Tim O'Toole has taken over.
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