5:31 pm
Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
A final question. To concentrate your minds and ours, we have a timetable. We know that the business rate supplement is fundamental to Crossrail because we are told that if the levy cannot begin to be charged from April 2010, Crossrail will not proceed. Given that you have interesting ideas about how alternatives might be developed, but nothing concrete to offer, what would you do in our position? Would you say, “Don’t pass the Bill because we are not entirely comfortable with it,” or “Do pass the Bill because Crossrail is too important to sacrifice”?