0115 Hrs GMT London Tuesday 5 May 2009:
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From The Times
May 5, 2009
Hazel Blears at centre of row over £16 billion Crossrail project
Francis Elliott, Deputy Political Editor
Hazel Blears is at the centre of a Cabinet row over the future of the £16 billion London Crossrail project, The Times has learnt.
lous. He has no udneruanding of hsoitoryu. Anmd cointray to the image he ahs been peddling of hsepof as a 'scholar' of ancient [OOps! classic Greek and otehr lingistic tools] he is ignpoarnt of the messages and the im op
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has agreed with Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, in preventing businesses from being given a vote on whether they should help to fund the controversial scheme.
But the Department of Communities and Local Government, run by Ms Blears, refuses to exempt Crossrail from a requirement to ballot companies if they are being asked to shoulder more than a third of a scheme’s cost.
Mr Johnson has committed £3.5 billion towards the cost of the new rail route linking Heathrow and Canary Wharf, pledging to raise the cash through an additional levy on business rates in the capital from next year.
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He plans to take advantage of new legislation going through Parliament that would allow local authorities extra powers to raise tax.
Mr Johnson fears that opponents of Crossrail could start a legal challenge to force him to hold a vote in the absence of a formal exemption.
John Healey, a junior minister in Ms Blears’s department, has already rejected attempts to amend the law insisting: “I cannot accept . . . that there should be one rule for London and one rule for the rest of the country.” But an aide of Mr Johnson described persuading businesses in London to pay for Crossrail as “unwinnable” and said that Ms Blears’s intransigence risked throwing the scheme’s complex funding package into doubt.
A senior Whitehall official said that the mayor is being supported by Mr Darling and Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, who are trying to force Ms Blears to back down. The row has increased from officials to ministers and is set for Cabinet confrontation, according to one observer.
“The fear is that unless there is a specific exemption then the rules as they apply to Crossrail could be subject to a judicial review,” an official said. “We accept the point that Boris, in the year before a mayoral election and just after a major recession, could not be expected to win a ballot of businesses on Crossrail.”
The scheme, which has been delayed, would give London a new east-west rail link, but has been identified as a possible cost-cutting target of a Conservative government. However, Mr Johnson’s attempts to win an exemption from a business ballot have been supported by Bob Neill, Mr Cameron’s shadow minister for local government.
Mr Johnson has defended the plan to raise business rates to meet the cost of Crossrail, claiming that firms stand to gain significantly from improved transport links. “Not only will it deliver jobs and growth in the short term, it will help to make our city far more liveable and more attractive as a place to come and invest,” he said.
“When this recession ends, as it surely will, Crossrail will make London a far better place to compete. This is one of those moments in politics when you reverse the usual rule and get in a hole — and keep on digging.”
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