Mayor's TfL will have total control of Crossrail

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Under the new arrangement, Transport for London - currently overseen by Ken Livingstone - will take over sole ownership of Cross London Rail Links Limited, the company charged with building the vital rail line. Previously it had been a joint venture between TfL and the Department for Transport.

The change in ownership, announced in the wake of yesterday's spending review, means the Mayor will be in charge of setting standards and levels of service on the line, which will run from Maidenhead via Heathrow and the City to Canary Wharf and beyond.

TfL will also have ultimate responsibility for ensuring the £16 billion scheme is completed in 2017 on time and on budget.

The Government is contributing £5billion with another £5billion coming from fares.

Of the remainder, major London firms are to contribute £1billion with the rest coming from the imposition of a new business tax called the supplementary business rate which will be levied by the Mayor on all companies in the greater London boundary from 2010 until Crossrail is completed.

The exact level of the tax is at the discretion of the Mayor but it will be capped at 2p in the pound - equivalent to a rate of 4.5 per cent which small firms have warned is at the upper limit of what they can afford.

The task facing Mr Livingstone is to nail down the contribution being made by major companies. The Canary Wharf group has agreed to pay most of the cost of the Isle of Dogs station and Heathrow's owner BAA has agreed "in principle" to contribute financially.