On track for regeneration

John Ross, the GLA’s Director of Economic & Business Policy

Ken Livingstone’s Campaign for Crossrail is gaining key support
2007 is set to be a crucial year for Crossrail. The Parliamentary Bill that will give the project its planning powers is making good progress, and all-important decisions on the project’s funding and financing are expected to be resolved this summer. If all goes to plan, the tendering and construction process can begin next year. The new route could open by 2015, establishing a cross-London rail link from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, via a tunnel under the West end, the City and Canary Wharf, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

We have learnt that the crucial decisions on Crossrail are expected to be included in this summer’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). Final funding and financing negotiations are therefore approaching. It is now up to the government to turn its manifesto commitment into reality. The support for Crossrail is overwhelming, its business case is rock-solid, and it is vital to start work next year.

Overwhelming support
Ken Livingstone’s Campaign for Crossrail has galvanised a huge number of influential supporters. Since its launch last year, the campaign’s simple aim has been to ensure that Crossrail is completed by 2015. The initial coalition of the Mayor, Transport for London, the City Corporation, London First, the CBI, the TUC and the London Chamber of Commerce quickly drew support from key businesses, trade unions and from across all the major political parties.

Leading names from the property sector – including British Land, Land Securities and Canary Wharf – attended the campaign launch and have since been joined by the likes of Hammerson, CB Richard Ellis, Portman Estate and Wilson Bowden. With the Prime Minister, government, shadow ministers, over 90 percent of London MPs, all major trade unions, the London boroughs and 20 percent of the FTSE 250 all backing the campaign, momentum is on our side.

Benefits of Crossrail
Crossrail is the largest single economic development project that the UK has to deliver. It is the only project that can simultaneously deliver against at least four major objectives.

First, on top of the essential renewal of the London Underground, capacity is urgently needed to cope with London’s population and employment growth. Both are expected to grow by 600,000 between now and 2016, the year when Crossrail should be open for business. Crossrail will add 40 percent of new rail capacity created up to 2016 and relieve congestion on several tube lines.
Second, it will link up some of the most valuable and fastest-growing parts of the national economy. London’s previously dispersed pattern of employment has been replaced by a massive concentration of growth in the centre. Crossrail’s route will join up those boroughs that have experienced the strongest jobs growth in recent years, and which are projected to continue to grow strongly in future. So Crossrail will link up four powerhouses of the national economy: Heathrow, the West End, the City and Canary Wharf – home to 850,000 jobs – and no other project can.

Third, in the east, it will intersect with the extended East London line at Whitechapel, bringing much faster access to the centre for thousands of people living within the poorest parts of the UK. And finally, after Whitechapel, the route will split to run both to the north-east and south-east of the capital, which have enormous potential for housing growth.

Crossrail can’t wait
New research commissioned by the Mayor’s Office has also dealt a fatal blow to the argument that having already waited so long for Crossrail, another year won’t matter. A combination of lost benefits, planning blight and increased construction costs mean that every year of delay costs £1.5bn to the economy – an astonishing £4m each day to London and the UK.

Regeneration on hold
Ensuring that Crossrail is not delayed is a position strongly held by leaders in the property sector.

Stephen Hester, chief executive of British Land, said Crossrail “needs to be up and running by the middle of the next decade to ensure the continued regeneration and development of the capital – the key motor in the UK economy.”

Similarly Francis Salway, chief executive of Land Securities, said: “London’s status as a world city and its essential contribution to the economic success of the UK are at risk if we do not adequately plan for the city’s future. Creating a transport system able to cope with the demands of a dynamic, growing city requires immediate and strategic investment. Crossrail offers us the only real opportunity to meet these demands – it is not one that we can afford to miss.”

Crossrail is also key to unlocking vital development and regeneration along its route. The much needed improvements to the east end of Oxford Street, the proposal to build an International Conference Centre, and equally important regeneration projects in Ilford, Custom House and Ealing, not to mention the development of the Thames Gateway, all depend directly or indirectly on Crossrail being delivered.

Cross London Rail Links Ltd has done an excellent job in preparing a scheme that is now so close to being delivered. Assisted by the important role of key players in the property and construction industry, the Campaign for Crossrail is on track to ensure that Crossrail receives the funding pledge that it needs from the Government in 2007 to allow construction to begin. Crossrail is a project which will deliver extraordinarily high benefits for the UK as a whole. The country cannot afford to wait for it any longer.

Olympics 2012 and Crossrail
Crossrail won’t be ready for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games but it will help to lock in its legacy.

Sir Keith Mills, deputy chairman of the London Organising Committee said: “With the huge regeneration in East London around the Olympic Park already underway, the need for Crossrail is even greater.”

Contrary to some reports, the construction industry in the UK has the capacity to handle both the 2012 Games and Crossrail, according to one expert. Stephen Ratcliffe, chief executive of the Construction Confederation said: “With an early steer on funding, the UK construction industry can gear up to deliver Crossrail with all the skill, sustainability and innovation that will be put into the infrastructure for the Olympics.”