£1bn trams were good value, claims ex-transport minister!
FORMER transport minister Stewart Stevenson yesterday claimed the Scottish Government got ‘value for money’ on the botched £1billion Edinburgh tram project.
From 2007 to 2010, Mr Stevenson held the transport job as the Scottish Government contributed £500million to the cost of the scheme.
The trams were originally planned to cost £375million but after spiralling into construction chaos they arrived three years late in 2014 at a cost of £1billion – a bill taxpayers will be forced to foot over 30 years.
But at the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry yesterday, Mr Stevenson insisted the Government investment was ‘value for money’ despite delays and the fact a huge portion of the track was cancelled.
Quizzed by members of the investigation team, Mr Stevenson – who quit his transport role after Scotland’s roads were brought to a standstill by snowstorms in 2010 – admitted the value could have been ‘better’ if the project had been completed as planned.
He was asked by inquiry chairman Lord Hardie: ‘Do you think the Government got value for its money on the tram project?’ Mr Stevenson replied: ‘My lord, we got a tram system up and running. And for our £500million we got a system that runs.
‘The risk associated with the project was for the City of Edinburgh Council who had to find quite substantial additional funding. It would have been better, of course – better value for money – if the project had gone all the way down Leith Walk to its final proposed destination. That’s just self-evident.’
Pushing the Nationalist MSP for Banffshire and Buchan Coast for clarity, Lord Hardie asked: ‘So do you say yes, the Government did get value for money or it did not?’
Seeming to push any blame onto the local authority, Mr Stevenson said: ‘Yes., it got value for money. It could have got better value for money.
‘The City of Edinburgh Council could have got better value for money for its project.’
Inquiry senior counsel Jonathan Lake, QC, asked Mr Stevenson: ‘Were you satisfied that you got what you paid for?’
Mr Stevenson replied: ‘We got what we paid for.
‘I think the broader question which is underlying the exchange with Lord Hardie and with yourself is whether the City of Edinburgh got what it paid for. I think that comes back to the point of it being an abbreviated route.’
Mr Lake said: ‘It might be said when the Government approved the grant with the Transport Scotland Act it thought it was getting a tram that would run all the way from the airport to Newhaven. Would you agree with that?’
Mr Stevenson admitted: ‘That was the plan.’
Mr Lake continued: ‘So the Government didn’t get what it thought it was going to get.’
Mr Stevenson said: ‘We were sharing the costs with the City of Edinburgh Council and the risks were with them. As I have said, it would have been better value for money for our £500million if it had gone all the way.’
Mr Lake said: ‘That’s all very well, Mr Stevenson, but it doesn’t answer my question.’
The MSP replied: ‘The question of whether the £500million delivered value for money is a broader question in that it delivered less value for money than going all the way.
‘That is not to say that it did not deliver value for money.
‘In commercial terms it’s in profit, so as a project it is delivering a return for the public investment.
‘But I accept it is less value for money than a project that would have gone all the way down to the Shore would have delivered.’
The inquiry continues.