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Transport for London gets extension to £1.8bn emergency funding deal to keep services running
The Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, has announced that he has offered Transport for London (TfL) an extension to their current emergency funding deal, which will now run until 18 May.
In a tweet sent out by Shapps, he said: “I’ve offered TfL an extension of the current emergency funding deal, until 18 May, on the same terms as now. This will ensure services continue to run across London and we‘ll ensure a new deal is in place by May as the PM’s unlock roadmap progresses.”
The original deal, which was agreed at the start of November, made £1.8 billion of government grant and borrowing, available on current projections to TfL. Transport for London said at the time it would make up through cost savings the £160million gap the deal leaves from the nearly £2 billion fund the organisation projects it will need to run the tube, bus and other TfL services for the remainder of this financial year.
When the deal was announced in November, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, expressed his disappointment at the way the agreement had developed, saying: “These negotiations with Government have been an appalling and totally unnecessary distraction at a time when every ounce of attention should have been focused on trying to slow the spread of Covid-19 and protecting jobs.
“The pandemic has had the same impact on the finances of the privatised rail companies as it has had on TfL and the Government immediately bailed them out for 18 months with no strings attached. There is simply no reason why the same easy solution could not have been applied to London, which would have allowed us all to focus on the issues that matter most to Londoners, which are tackling the virus and protecting jobs.
“I am pleased that we have succeeded in killing off the very worst Government proposals.
"These proposals from the Government would have hammered Londoners by massively expanding the congestion charge zone, scrapping free travel for older and younger Londoners and increasing TfL fares by more than RPI+1. I am determined that none of this will now happen.
"This is not a perfect deal, but we fought hard to get to the best possible place. The only reason TfL needs Government support is because almost all our fares income has dried up since March as Londoners have done the right thing.”
