London Mayor Sadiq Khan has had a half-a-billion pound funding demand cut in half by the Government and could face being stripped of his powers to decide what new homes are built in the capital.
Transport for London had said it needed a whopping £500million to meet budget demands despite burning through £6.6billion of public money from the Department of Transport since 2020.
Instead Tfl will received £250million with Transport Secretary Mark Harper accusing the Greater London Authority (GLA) of “poor governance and decision making” when it came to transport budgets for London.
He added the Government had “expressed ongoing concern about the management of TfL by this Mayor”.
And in a double whammy for Mr Khan he could face having his power to decide home building priorities taken away after Housing Secretary Michael Gove announced a new panel would be reviewing the Mayor’s plans.
Mr Khan has been an ardent supporter of affordable home building in the capital, but Mr Gove, who is also a supporter of such residences, said the Mayor’s strategy was actually stifling development.
The Evening Standard reports Mr Gove said: “His (Mr Khan’s) requirement for such a high percentage of affordable homes in every new development imposes such significant costs that development does not go ahead, and so we get no new homes, and no new affordable homes.”
Conservative mayoral candidate AM Susan Hall said she was pleased the Government had stepped in over what she called Mr Khan’s “wasteful” spending on the transport network.
She added: “Sadiq Khan has spent too long treating Londoners like walking cash machines, ramping up taxes to cover his shoddy spending, he’s left London’s finances in a mess.”
Mr Khan, who will run for his third term as London Mayor next year when Londoners go to the polls, hit back at both the TfL funding and housing slap downs.
A spokesman said Transport Secretary Mr Harper’s comments were “simply not true”, adding: “The mayor and TfL have recovered TfL’s finances after the devastating impact of the pandemic, now delivering an operating surplus and covering the vast majority of TfL’s capital investment needs.”
On housing, a source close to the Mayor called the possible intervention in his housing policy as “distraction tactics” by the Conservative Government.
They fumed: “The Mayor will take no lessons from a Government, and a housing minister in Michael Gove, that have such a shameful record and have repeatedly intervened to block the new housing the capital desperately needs.”
