Sadiq Khan has halved the minimum amount of money he is asking for from the Labour Government to fund major transport projects over the coming year, compared with what he asked for last year.
The mayor had asked the last Tory Government in 2023 for a minimum of £569m to pay for a range of infrastructure upgrades to London’s transport network - and complained after only £250m was given.
But in an interview with the Standard, Mr Khan revealed that he now believes it would count as “a win” to receive “anything more than £250m” from the new Labour Government for the coming financial year.
The mayor explained that this was due to the “£22bn black hole” in the public finances which Chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed to have found shortly after taking office in Whitehall.
Ahead of the last Government’s autumn statement in November last year, Mr 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.”
TfL had itself cited a lower requested figure of £500m, which it said would help progress a range of projects, including the replacement of ageing Underground trains on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines, and the proposed cross-river DLR extension to Thamesmead.
The then Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, said in December 2023 that his department would be providing only £250m, which according to Mr Khan had forced TfL to make “difficult decisions about its business plan”.
However, asked earlier this week what he will be requesting from the new Government this year, Mr 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.”
The Chancellor’s claim, in July this year, that she had inherited a £22bn gap in the public finances was met with ridicule by her Conservative opponents. Her predecessor, Mr Hunt, said she would “fool absolutely no one” and accused her at the time of a “shameless attempt” to lay the groundwork for tax rises in her upcoming Budget.
But Mr Khan insisted Ms Reeves had been forced to find ways to “make ends meet”, and said, given that context: “I’ll ask for as much as I can get. But what I’m saying is, a win is getting anything more than £250m.”
Looking to next year though, he also said: “The real prize is the spring spending review, because what I want is a multi-year deal there.”
The mayor hopes that this “multi-year deal” can be in place to provide funding for years following the 2025/26 financial year, but in the meantime, he is asking for “at least £250m” to cover 2025/26.
Neil Garratt, leader of City Hall Conservatives, accused the mayor of “watering down” what he said were “exaggerated financial demands” made of the previous Government.
“Last year the mayor said that £500m was the absolute minimum to stop TfL collapsing, but this year he claims that anything ‘north of £250m’ is a win,” said Mr Garratt.
“So we’re pleased that Mark Harper as Secretary of State for Transport under a Conservative Government helped him achieve this win last year with a TfL grant of £250m for 2024/25.
“Consistently under Khan’s mayoralty he made exaggerated financial demands, which made it impossible for a Conservative Government to work constructively with him.
“Now that he has a Labour Government and he can’t get away with that, he’s forced to be honest. What other demands are going to be watered down in the next few years?”
Ms Reeves’ Budget will be set out on Wednesday, October 30.
