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Tories admit Crossrail is on their list for spending ‘reassessment’
Nicholas Cecil07.05.09
Crossrail will be reviewed by the Conservatives, a senior frontbencher has confirmed.
The Evening Standard revealed this week that the £16 billion rail project could be delayed if David Cameron wins power.
Tory sources sought to play down the threat to the cross-London rail scheme and shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers insisted that it was not “currently” being reviewed.
But shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond yesterday refused to guarantee that Crossrail would escape the Conservative cuts programme.
Labour is desperate to pin down exactly where the Tory axe will fall and Treasury minister Yvette Cooper cornered Mr Hammond in the Commons on Crossrail, urging him to make clear whether his party “supported” the new rail line which will run from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, under central London and out to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
Mr Hammond insisted that the rail scheme, due to open in 2017, was a “good project” which fitted “very well” into his party's agenda of improving rail infrastructure. But he added: “Every single programme, every single project will have to be reassessed and re-evaluated.
“It will have to demonstrate its value for money, it will have to demonstrate its effectiveness in an extraordinary tight fiscal climate created by the disaster that this Government has visited upon this country.”
London Mayor Boris Johnson has said that he has been assured that Crossrail is protected from cutbacks.
However, estimates are circulating about the scale of savings that the next Government will have to make to balance Britain's books after Chancellor Alistair Darling's astronomical borrowing to lessen the impact of the recession.
One report, in The Spectator, suggested that cuts of 10 per cent in the defence, Home Office and education budgets would be needed over the three years after 2011.
Mr Cameron has already admitted that a Tory government could scale down Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent.
Reader views (7)
Clean up MP expenses and we could have a network of Crossrail lines?
Tory MP's will just have to look to the National Trust or knowing them they will change rules on National Lottery to include Country Estates as suitable foor lottery funding.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
CrossRail should be reviewed now. The project seems to have taken a very long time in awarding some very expensive management contracts but has made little real progress during the past 2 years much to the distress of the engineering sector during the current recession.
- Mike, london
I would rather they scap the NHS than crossrail!
- Thejules, Paris, France
Who needs Trident (out of date already)the Olympics or indeed Crossrail? Answers please on a postage stamp to 10,Downing STreet,London
- Mike, London England
Since we cannot trust the figures from the Labour Government on the actual scale of the financial problems we face, it will only be once the next Tory Government is elected.
I agree completely with Mr. Hammond - for 12 years we have just thrown money at problems without reform - We need to get more bangs for our buck!
- Ian Gilbertson, Newcastle
I would rather Cameron had the cajones to scrap the Olympics. Trident and Crossrail would be good too, but those projects will have a longer legacy than a 3-week festival of running about, jumping and throwing things.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
After the recall of the NATO ambassador from Moscow, and relations with Russia worsening significantly, is this really the right time for the Conservatives to be saying they will not be renewing Trident.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa, Spain
