TfL: Khan hits out at Shapps for refusing to meet him as funding talks go down to wire
City Hall and Whitehall have continued their row over urgent Transport for London (TfL) funding talks tonight, with each side blaming the other for slow progress.
With just four days to go until TfL’s latest government bailout runs out, its fourth in the past 19 months, transport secretary Grant Shapps has still not met with London mayor Sadiq Khan or his representatives.
Khan issued a desperate plea tonight for talks to move quicker, with the mayor again warning he would have to cut services if TfL isn’t given a comprehensive deal.
He told City PM that “time is running out to save TfL from a managed decline scenario” and that “there has been no engagement from [Shapps]”.
“I hope the government will get round the table in the next few days so we can save London’s transport network, and with it the economic recovery in the capital and wider country,” he said.
However, a government spokesperson said any delay was due to Khan not coming up with new solutions.
They said “the mayor agreed to identify new or increased income sources by 19 November”, but that “these have not been identified … we are therefore extending that deadline to 8 December and, once received, government stands ready to begin discussions on further support for TfL”.
TfL has received more than £4bn in government bailouts since March last year, after the transport body’s revenues plummeted by 90 per cent during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
A TfL report last month said there will be a £6.6bn black hole in the transport body’s finances between 2022 and 2025, after revenues were £1bn less than expected this year.
Khan has warned that he will have to slash bus services and potentially close an entire Tube line without a new deal.
A group of 83 London business, charities and universities over the weekend urged chancellor Rishi Sunak to provide TfL with a long-term funding deal to safeguard the capital’s future economic prospects.
They said that without “sufficient financial support to deal with the continued effects of the pandemic we may soon fall back into the cycle of decline that plagued the capital before the creation of Transport for London”.
Bosses from Eurostar International, London City Airport, Landsec, the New West End Company, Imperial College London, the London School of Economics and the Centre for London were among the singatories to the letter to Sunak.