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'Full speed ahead' for Crossrail despite business levy protests
Nicholas Cecil4 Dec 2008
Boris Johnson today said Crossrail was on the fast track to completion despite protests from business chiefs at being forced to pay towards the £16billion project.
The Mayor promised that the long-awaited rail link is on schedule to open in 2017 after progress was made on three vital sources of funding. Today ministers and Mr Johnson announced:
● Responsibility for delivering Crossrail will be transferred to the Mayor tomorrow after agreements over governance and funding were signed.
● Legislation allowing the Mayor to raise £3.5billion through a levy on London firms will be published in Parliament.
● The City of London Corporation has signed up to raising up to £350 million for the scheme.
"Today is an important moment for London as Crossrail will now move forward full speed ahead," said Mr Johnson. "The pace of delivery will now quicken - with Crossrail transferring to TfL tomorrow, work at Tottenham Court Road beginning in the spring, and delivery partner companies being appointed early next year."
Concerns grew this year after the Mayor and ministers missed a September deadline to sign governance and funding documents. Local government minister John Healey was also today publishing the Business Rates Supplements Bill which was not mentioned in the Queen's Speech. It allows the Mayor and other top-tier local authorities to charge a levy of up to 2p on business rates to raise funds for infrastructure projects.
Business chiefs condemned the introduction of the legislation as Britain plunges into recession. John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, said "now is not the time" for the tax.
But Mr Healey insisted that the levy would only be charged from 2010 and would aim to raise £178million a year in London for Crossrail.
Reader views (5)
Well done! Only about 50 years late. Now with the upgraded Thameslink London will soon have to "Crossrails". Paris already has 5, the RER lines A, B, C, D, E. Better keep on digging those tunnels!
- Julian Rolfe, Paris, France, 21/12/2008 12:26
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The anti-roads lobby always say that if you provide a road, then traffic will in time fill it, and negate the short-term improvement; they're right.
Is the same not also true of railway capacity? Given the universal assumption that no private developer would provide Crossrail as a profit-making scheme, should we not stand back and ask why not, rather than assume that the public purse should provide it instead?
Why is it assumed that economic activity, especially in this time of instant communication, consists always in packing in more and more people from a bigger and bigger area into the same small space? If I can do business with my bank online, why can't the bank?
My humble suggestion would be to legislate that contracts of employment made an employee's journey to work a cost of the employer: we'd soon see a radical reassessment of where businesses should be located, and where they should be recruiting their staff. Head offices would downsize, and enlarge their back office functions further out into the suburbs, making life easier for job-sharers, and working mothers. If we could reduce the average commute by one-third, the social gain would be huge with no loss of wealth:family life and local voluntary culture of all sorts would revive.
Crossrail has the feel about it of feeding an addiction,or alleviating a symptom, rather than fixing the disease.
- Mdj, Leyton, e10 london, 05/12/2008 00:20
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It is about the future of London go for it.
- David, London, 04/12/2008 18:36
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How about axing the South East Section ( south of the River). It is really expensivebecause of building all of those tunnels, serves very little to no practical purpose and will bring the messy spectre of overhead electrification to the low-visability 3rd rail Southeast.
Want to save money? lets start by removing this useless line !
- Off The Rails, London, England, 04/12/2008 18:08
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Business chiefs should demand that the income from Business Rates levied in London stayed in London. This was how it was until the Thatcher government took this money and gave it to the tory shires.
So come on Boris demand that Cameron restores this arrangement as we all know you enjoy to discuss what you are doing.
As for Crossrail its a pity electrification of the main line from Paddington was not altready underway as it is not really a cost of Crossrail. So lets get the wiring underway and expand it to cover all suburban services from Paddington.
Of course the Ealing to Sudbury branch would make a good starting point for a West London DLR/Tram scheme but knowing Boris this will remain a negleted asset in a sea of congestion.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 04/12/2008 14:20
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