7 Conclusion
33. It would be wrong to claim that the PPP had produced
no benefits for the Tube. Stations are being refurbished; new
trains and carriages are being ordered or delivered; lines are
being upgraded and failing equipment replaced. This is hardly
surprising. David Rowlands, now Permanent Secretary of the Department
of Transport, described current government expenditure as investment
"at around twice the level seen over the last 10 years".[48]
This is a wild underestimate, unless the costs of the Jubilee
Line Extension are included in the figures for spending before
PPP.
34. When we investigated, we found there were no
easily accessible figures giving the amount of central government
grant for the Underground. Our Chairman obtained a breakdown of
figures through a written question, and we include them here.Table
3: Government funding for the London Underground, 1997-98 -2004-05,
cash prices
| £m (cash) |
1997-98 | 1998-99
| 1999-00 | 2000-01
| 2001-022
| 2002-03 | 2003-043
| 2004-054
|
| London Regional Transport
| 630 | 411
| 816 | 315
| 484 | 767
| 867 | -
|
| London Underground1
| 544 | 313
| 640 | 267
| 460 | 767
| 1,218 | 1,070
|
| Of which
Jubilee Line extension construction
| 506 | 267
| 478 |
| | | |
|
| Source: London Underground accounts for 1997-98 to 2003-04
In 2001-02, LRT spent £24m on the re-structuring and re-organising LT Group
In 2003-04, the grant for LU was paid to LRT until July 2003 with the balance of £346 million being paid as part of the GLA Transport Grant from August 2003.
The element of the GLA transport grant identified by Government for London Underground
|
Table 4: Government Funding for the London Underground, 1997-98-2004-05,
current prices
| £m (constant 2003-04 prices1)
| 1997-98 | 1998-99
| 1999-00 | 2000-01
| 2001-02 | 2002-03
| 2003-04 | 2004-05
|
| London Regional Transport
| 730.9 | 463.4
| 900.7 | 343.5
| 514.9 | 789.1
| 867 | -
|
| London Underground* |
631.1 | 352.9
| 706.4 | 291.2
| 489.4 | 789.1
| 1,218 | 1,048.0
|
| Of which
Jubilee Line extension construction
| 587.0 | 301.0
| 527.6 |
| | | |
|
| 1. HMT GDP Deflator
|
They show that, disregarding the costs of the
Jubilee Line extension, central government expenditure in
constant terms has increased from £44.1m in 1997-98 to £1,048m
in the current financial year; a increase of 2,276% - over twentyfold.
We acknowledge that the funds available for general Tube maintenance
increased once the Jubilee Line Extension was completed, but even
so, funding from central government has more than tripled since
2000-01. Government funding for the Tube in 2007-08 will be over
£1.3 billion.
35. In addition to this extra public sector funding,
the PPP produces about £5 billion of long term private finance,
through the infracos. But they are handsomely paid for their work
through the infrastructure service charge paid by London Underground—over
£1 billion in 2003-04.[49]
It remains to be seen whether the PPP has given the private sector
incentives to upgrade the Tube more efficiently and effectively
than would have been possible through the public sector, but at
this stage we believe its major achievement has been to ensure
that the Government commits itself to providing sustained funding
for London Underground; a commitment which, given the political
will, could have been made without any PPP.
48 letter from David Rowlands to Bob Kiley, Commissioner
for transport for London, 4 Dec 2002, http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_localtrans/documents/page/dft_localtrans_032862.pdf Back
49
TfL Report, p. 21 Back
|
