It is difficult to square Boris Johnson’s “Build Back Better” slogan with the news that a “significant” number of infrastructure schemes will have to be shelved by Transport for London under the terms of its latest Government bailout.
As we report in today’s paper, deputy mayor for transport Heidi Alexander has warned investments in underground stations, road maintenance and cycle lanes are at risk as the organisation must find at least £300 million in savings to comply with the £1.08 billion deal struck last month.
Such a move would hamper the capital’s post-Covid bounce-back, and by making it harder to achieve the overarching aim of getting more Londoners out of their cars, calls into question the Government’s commitment to a green recovery. TfL Commissioner Andy Byford has again highlighted the need for a longer-term settlement. These continuous short-term deals give no one the certainty they need.
The worry is the Government views investment in London — the driving force of the UK economy — as somehow antithetical to levelling up. This would be a mistake. London can and must rise with the rest of the country.
Electrifying our bus network is a case in point. A total of 500 London uses are currently electric. Byford rightly points out that if TfL could get its 9,000-strong fleet electrified, that would help drive both the Government’s levelling up and green agendas, given the welcome news that Nissan is to make a £1 billion investment in a battery plant in Sunderland.
A huge order of electric buses — made not just for London but our other great cities — would be a boon for jobs and industry in the very regions ministers want to support. Byford puts the price tag for the capital at up to £1 billion.
TfL and the Government need to come together and strike a deal that puts Londoners, not politics, first.
