What impact does continued uncertainty and last-minute extensions to TfL’s funding have on London’s transport system?

Having again taken this to the last day of the previous funding agreement in December [2021], the Government extended TfL’s funding support until 4 February [2022]. We have no certainty of what will happen after that. As I have said before, without adequate funding TfL will have to move to a managed decline scenario, meaning severe cuts to services and capital investment. The pandemic is the only reason TfL is facing a financial crisis. These short-term deals are trapping TfL on life support, rather than putting it on a path to long-term sustainability. Rather than supporting the capital city, the Government is forcing us to raise additional revenue through measures like council tax, punishing Londoners for doing the right thing and avoiding public transport during the pandemic, as the Government told them to do.

The Government must realise that London is the motor of the UK and TfL has a critical role to play in driving the national economic recovery. London contributes more than £36 billion net to the Treasury each year, and TfL contributes £7 billion to the UK economy and supports 43,000 jobs around the country. We need their skills and expertise. The lack of funding from Government means thousands of jobs are at risk here in London and across the country. Building London buses supports 3,000 skilled green jobs at factories in Scarborough, Falkirk, Leeds, and Ballymena, for example. We cannot do this ourselves. TfL has had to pause awarding new bus contracts since early November [2021]. London bus operators only place vehicle orders when new contracts have been awarded, meaning the lack of a long-term funding deal is having an immediate impact on the order books for UK bus manufacturers. London Underground renewals support jobs across the country. Siemens, for example, has committed to build a new train manufacturing facility at Goole in Yorkshire, a £200 million investment that will create 700 direct and 1,700 indirect jobs.

I have therefore called again on Ministers to stop playing politics with an issue of such great national importance, and to start working with us in good faith so that we can agree a long-term funding deal that will protect London’s transport network for the sake of the capital and the whole country.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Firstly, I would like to follow up with a question about a specific area of your Transport Strategy and how funding might affect that. We heard at Transport Committee last week about the threat to Vision Zero if TfL funding cannot be secured, which would mean no additional Safer Junctions schemes or transformational road safety schemes, other than those that are planned at the moment. Can you tell us more about how funding uncertainty will affect road safety in the capital?

We have made good progress - I want us to go even faster - in relation to making our roads safer, in particular for cyclists and pedestrians. One of the reasons why we are increasing capacity in relation to the MPS enforcement is to try to make our roads safer. As we are on a managed decline scenario and because there is no certainty of funding, we are having to pause certain pieces of work - some are so advanced we cannot pause and it does not make sense - but also, we cannot look at new schemes. You will be aware that road dangers evolve; new dangers we discover today that were not around six months ago. Some of the schemes we are working on on the Safer Junctions schemes were not known a number of years ago. They are known; we took action. There are a number of issues. Those that we are currently trying to fix and sort out that we know about may not happen or they may happen slower, but also new threats cannot be dealt with.

The other point is this. You will be aware most of the roads are owned and controlled by councils and we give the councils funding for them to make improvements. We will not be able to do that either and councils have not got the money themselves to make these improvements. Again, final point, we are trying to encourage people to leave their cars at home, to not use petrol and diesel and to walk and cycle and use public transport. The Government is making that really difficult with the way it is treating TfL.

Yes, thank you. Thank you for that update. Following up on that, as we know, TfL will be forced under a managed decline scenario to cut the number of Tube and bus services if sufficient funding is not forthcoming. Is the Government’s perceived lack of support for public transport, which would result in these services cuts, eroding the public’s faith in the future of public transport and what might be the impact on both car usage, as you said, and revenue from fares?

There is a more basic point. Let us just talk about today. From today, the working from home advice changes. Are you going to be encouraged and enticed to come back to the office if there are 10% fewer buses or 20% fewer Tubes or you cannot get the quality of service that you have been used to? We need people to return to the office because that helps our economy, it helps mentoring, it helps creativity and so forth. In the medium to long term, how are we going to have modal shift if there are not good, attractive, accessible, safe, and affordable alternatives? That is why it is so important for us to persuade the Government, but it appears the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. The Government’s own zero carbon strategy would encourage, you would have thought, the Department for Transport (DfT) to give us the support we need. That is why we are, before 4 February [2022] trying to make them understand it is in the country’s interests to give TfL the funding that we so desperately need, only needed because of the pandemic.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thanks, Chair.