City Hall’s ambitious plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street will not come at a cost to the capital’s taxpayers, Sir Sadiq Khan confirmed to the London Assembly yesterday.
The commitment was made as the Assembly’s budget and performance committee quizzed the Mayor about his spending plans for 2025/26, ahead of the publication of his full budget and Council Tax proposals, due next Wednesday.
While the budget would cover the initial costs of re-designating Oxford Street as a mayoral rather than a Westminster council-controlled road and the setting-up of the City Hall-controlled Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), which will take the plans forward along with the required consultation, the scheme itself would be funded privately, Khan said.
“The plan is to bring investment into the part of the street being pedestrianised, and from the conversations we’ve had with a number of people in the private sector, there is a big appetite for that,” he said. “You will not be seeing big sums of money from my budget being spent on this project because I’m confident we will get the monies from third parties.” The cost of the scheme has been estimated at around £150 million.
The Mayor also repeated his commitment to wider use of MDCs, which have so far entailed taking over planning and land assembly powers from local authorities in their designated areas. He said these would “help provide certainty” to investors. MDCs currently cover the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and some of its surrounding areas, and land around the Old Oak Common HS2 station, now under construction.
“We don’t want to impose them on a council or a community,” the Mayor said, “but councils have approached us, saying they are often in difficulties because a handful of very vocal residents make local ward councillors a bit nervous on an issue that is good for the borough and good for the city, and we can’t get it through committee.” He added that he was “happy to take some vocal flak” if a good result for London could be achieved.
With the details of government funding settlements and Business Rate income still to be finalised, Khan was non-committal on the final shape of his budget for the coming year, or his call on Council Tax payers. His initial plans, out for consultation before Christmas, suggested the City Hall Council Tax demand for 2025/26, to be added to boroughs’ Council Tax, could be £480.83 for a Band D taxpayer, up £9.40 on this year’s bill.
And while welcoming extra government money already announced for next year, including £485 million of capital funding for Transport for London – almost double the previous year’s amount – and £100 million added to his 2021-2026 affordable homes programme, Khan said the “prize” for the capital remained a multi-year capital funding and revenue deal.
That was City Hall’s goal in negotiations now getting underway as part of the government’s forthcoming spending review, he said, adding that his bid for affordable housing funding would run into “billions”.
He also said he would be seeking government support for major new transport schemes, including extending the Bakerloo Line and Docklands Light Railway, the proposed West London Orbital overground link and replacement Underground trains for the network’s aging stock.
To secure that transport funding, the government’s expectation was that TfL tube and rail fares would continue to rise in line with national increases, he confirmed.
The London Assembly will have two opportunities to discuss the final proposed mayoral budget after it is published on 15 January – at full plenary sessions on 23 January and finally on 17 February.
The Assembly has the power to amend the budget, but only if a two-thirds majority of its 25 members can agree on what changes should be made. To date, no mayoral budget has been successfully amended.
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