Mayor halves TFL funding request: are Londoners just a political football?

[Rockets]

BBC News - Mayor halves transport funding request from Budget
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dp7w6p775o

 

Amazing how the narrative has changed with a new government...is Khan still fighting for Londoners or rolling over and putting party politics and his own political aspirations ahead of what Londoners need? This seems to be one hell of a u-turn...so what gives?

[malumbu]

It's called negotiation.  

[first mate]

12 minutes ago, malumbu said:

It's called negotiation.  

Ah yes, it can only be that; and pigs will fly.

[malumbu]

Negotiation - start off with an optimistic request and usually settle with your bottom line.  This looking for dirt at every opportunity is tiresome.  

[Rockets]

So he isnt doing any negotiation this year then? Or is he negotiating like the haggling scene in Life of Brian this time round?

This isn't looking for dirt - it's highlighting hypocrisy. 

 

Edited October 26, 2024 by Rockets

[alice]

Like the daily mail on here sometimes pack it in. rubbish argument. 

[David Peckham]

Given that the article is from the BBC, it doesn't really seem like a conspiracy by the right wing media. However, I notice 'The Guardian' don't seem to be covering the story.

Anyone, in the private sector at least, who came out of a negotiation with 50% of the value they were punting around prior to it wouldn't last until the end of the week.

They've either gone in with unreasonable expectations, and are wasting everyone's time, or they've had their pants firmly pulled down.

Either way, they're really not very good.

[Insuflo]

Is political football the most pathetic cliche ever?
The antipathy and contempt that the last government had for London and Londoners drove it to keep TfL on an annual funding regime, meaning the Mayor would have to come back every six months to beg for the money required to keep the transport network running. This made it impossible to plan for new infrastructure projects or serious upgrades. The national rail network, motorways etc are funded on a 5-year planning cycle.

As I understand it, the new government intends to return to a 5-year funding agreement for TfL from April and is negotiating with the Mayor as to what this will entail. This will be part of the public spending review to be completed in the spring. Consequently, all TfL requires from the budget is enough funding to last for the remainder of this financial year, which is well past half way. As the Mayor states in the article, any increase on last year’s funding to get TfL through to April would be a good result. I really don’t think Sadiq Khan has any ambitions beyond remaining as Mayor of London, by the way.

[malumbu]

If you were not so infatuated with Mayor Khan you would maybe be aware, as I have posted before, that Mayor Johnson screwed things up with his settlement with the then Tory government - Covid was a disaster for TfL and then Johnson and his Transport Secretary played hardball with roles were reversed, ie Johnson was PM.

Mayor Khan should be given credit for getting things back on track and London still has the best public transport in the country

[Rockets]

So given the below what happened between the letter Sadiq sent begging for money to the Tories and the £250m or so he will be asking Labour for..

...and politicians wonder why no one trusts them anymore...

 

Ahead of the last government’s autumn statement in November last year, Khan had said in a letter to then-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt that Transport for London (TfL) “needs £569m in capital support for 2024/25 to support critical network upgrades and investment in critical road assets”.

He added: “Failure to secure this funding would put vital upgrades at risk and be detrimental to long-term infrastructure investment in the capital’s transport network, with consequential negative impacts on the wider UK economy.”

However, asked earlier this week what he will be requesting from the new government, Khan said: “I’ll be asking for north of £250m. The £250m we got last year was before the £22bn black hole in the government’s year-to-year expenditure.”

 

So does this mean then that if he gets £250m then critical infrastructure upgrades are at risk and there will be negstive conseuqences and if so why isn't he fighting for more?

 

And if you think Sadiq (like his cohort Andy Burnham) don't have political aspirations beyond city leadership then you are very much mistaken...I mean, it's not as if previous mayors haven't used it for bigger personal goals! 😉

[malumbu]

Mayor Khan was a Transport minister.  Mayor Burnham was Culture then Health Secretary.  I understand they were both good at these jobs. Unlike PM and Mayor Johnson.   I thought that you would be better informed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34923879

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/sadiq-khan-announces-independent-review-into-tfl-funding-after-covid-19-shutdown/

Edited October 26, 2024 by malumbu

[Rockets]

Mal, what are you going on about? The point I was making is that, like Boris, regional mayors often use their roles to springboard to bigger jobs.

If you spend the whole time picking fights (ostensibly on behalf of your constituents) with the government of the day (who happen to be your political opponent) and then the moment the government changes to your own party and you stop fighting (on behalf of your constituents) then you look like a bit of a hypocrite and clearly you were only fighting because it suited the party agenda. 

The TFL funding issue looks like a prime example of this and, to be honest, the last thing Labour HQ need right now is a regional mayor kicking off and fighting on behalf of what is right for their area.

[Rockets]

Let's see how much of a fight is put up to not increase fares....

 

BBC News - Government wants London Tube and bus fare increase
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93qnpvdwj0o