Was there some miscommunication in recent days between Whitehall and City Hall over the vexed question of Sir Sadiq Khan’s top transport investment priority, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) extension to Thamesmead?
During Thursday’s Mayor’s Question Time session, the Mayor doubled down on his criticism of last week’s government Spending Review announcement, which did not include funding for any transport schemes in London.
Rachel Reeves had “got it wrong” he told London Assembly members (AMs), highlighting the Chancellor’s failure to back the “shovel-ready” DLR extension in particular as a “continuation of pitting of London against the rest of the country”. He had a rough ride, with opposition AMs suggesting the government was not only devaluing the capital but “disrespecting” the Mayor too.
The Spending Review had merely offered to “explore options” for the DLR scheme, which City Hall argues would “unlock” up to 30,000 much-needed new homes along its route via Beckton to Thamesmead. But almost as Khan was speaking, transport secretary Heidi Alexander, coincidentally his former transport deputy, was beefing up that commitment.
The government “recognises the potential housing and economic growth that could be stimulated by extending the DLR…and acknowledges the substantial work undertaken on the programme to date,” Alexander says in a letter formally confirming a four-year, £2.2 billion overall capital funding deal for TfL. It would therefore “continue to work closely with the Greater London Authority and TfL so they can finalise a full business case and funding plan by autumn 2025.”
It’s the first time the government has set a timescale for the DLR scheme. The commitment is also in line with TfL’s recent confirmation, in commissioner Andy Lord’s update to his board last week, that work is underway on the required formal application for government approval of the project. That is expected to be ready next year, and further public consultation on the details of the scheme is to go ahead at the end of this month.
Meanwhile the detail of London’s share of the £39 billion for affordable housing announced by the Chancellor remains to be determined, with negotiations with Whitehall continuing and an announcement not expected until the autumn, Khan told AMs.
Is the government target of 88,000 new homes a year in London at risk? “We are going to bust a gut to build every single home we can,” Khan said. Achieving the target was nevertheless “much more difficult without the right infrastructure,” he added, echoing the pre-Spending Review warning from Deputy Mayor for Planning, Jules Pipe. Alexander’s new commitment could now ease that concern.
In a wide-ranging session, Khan also perhaps surprised his questioners with his support for prosecution of officials complicit in “grooming gang’” failures, for deportation of foreign nationals guilty of serious crimes, and for reform of the European Convention on Human Rights, which he said he had himself raised as a justice minister – while querying the Conservatives’ conversion to that cause after 14 years in power.
Khan repeated Met assurances that grooming gangs did not appear to be operating in London, but added that concerns would be investigated, and the Met would “cooperate fully” with the national inquiry announced by the government.
Watch the Mayor’s Question Time session in full here.
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