Shapps accuses Mayor as funding row drags on
A war of words has erupted between London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps, ahead of the July 13 deadline for the Government to agree further emergency funding to Transport for London.
Shapps took to Twitter to accuse Khan of blocking any deal, tweeting: “The Government has provided TfL with close to £5 billion of funding, but by repeatedly playing politics instead of fulfilling his side of the bargain, Sadiq Khan is preventing a longterm deal from being secured.”
The Transport Secretary also published on Twitter a four-page letter that he had sent to Khan, in which he said the Mayor’s claims that the Government “forced” him into making significant cuts were “untrue”.
“The cuts are not necessary and… have been artificially created by you as a political weapon in your campaign for a long-term capital funding deal,” wrote Shapps.
“But bus operations have little to do with capital funding - they are supported by revenue subsidy, which the government has provided through the pandemic and will continue to provide.”
The funding crisis results from the March 2020 COVID lockdown, which decimated TfL’s revenue after Tube journeys fell by 95% and bus journeys by 85%.
On April 22 2020, Khan said that TfL could run out of money to pay staff by the end of the month, unless the Government stepped in.
Two days later, TfL furloughed a quarter of its staff to help mitigate a 90% reduction in fare revenue.
In May 2020, TfL said it needed £3.2bn to balance an emergency budget, otherwise it would have to issue a Section 114 notice (the equivalent of a public body going bust).
The Government agreed £1.6bn emergency funding to September 2020, and subsequently made
further grants. The last expired on June 24 this year, when TfL agreed with the Government that the funding agreement would be extended to July 13 to enable discussions about sustained longterm Government funding to resume.
TfL says a long-term deal “is vital if a period of ‘managed decline’ of London’s transport network is to be avoided.”
Emma Gibson, CEO of London transport watchdog London TravelWatch, said: “We’re worried that the losers in the battle of words between the Mayor and Grant Shapps will be people who use the bus - many of them on low incomes.”
Railway Industry Association Chief Executive Darren Caplan added: “It must be a concern for everyone that the extension marks the 11th ‘stop-gap’ funding settlement between the Government and TfL in just over two years. We strongly urge the DfT and TfL to negotiate a properly funded multi-annual settlement as soon as possible.
“Clearly, this is no way to run a transport system, as it harms TfL’s ability to plan for the future, causes real uncertainty for businesses in the supply chain, and results in worse value for money for the taxpayer.”
TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes described the Government’s short-term funding as “highly negligent and disgraceful”.
Cortes called on Shapps to “get a grip”, adding: “This bears all the hallmarks of a minister out of his depth and acting in a partisan fashion to punish the people of London for voting Labour.”