• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MayorWatch

London News and Comment

  • NEWS
  • Twitter

Boris’s own figures confirm taxpayer is biggest Cycle Hire funder

March 20, 2012 - Martin Hoscik@MayorWatch

London Cycle Hire bikes . Photo: MayorWatch
Taxpayers will pay at least £67.8m to fund London’s Cycle Hire scheme, almost £18m more than the maximum contribution from sponsors Barclays bank.

Although Transport for London has adopted a policy of not publicising non-Barclays funding sources, figures provided by Mayor Boris Johnson show that Londoners are funding the greatest share of the scheme’s set-up costs.

The Barclays’ sponsorship deal is worth a maximum of £50m by 2018.

The Mayor and Transport for London have repeatedly refused to publish their contract with Barclays.

However the £50m sponsorship money is understood to be paid in annual instalments based on the scheme meeting contracted performance criteria.

Where those criteria are not met, it is understood that Barclays can reduce the total amount of sponsorship money.

In an answer to Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, Mayor Johnson confirmed that the cost of implementing the scheme’s current two phases was £119.8m.

As previously reported, the costs of the recent eastwards expansion were met in part by Tower Hamlets council which provided £2m.

Other councils have been told expansion into their boroughs is “conditional” on them also providing £2m of funding.

The Mayor’s figures show that taxpayers have provided the majority of the scheme’s upfront costs, with TfL providing the shortfall between the borough funding and the money received so far from Barclays.

Even if TfL had received the entire £50m promised sponsorship from Barclays upfront, taxpayers would still have paid £67.8m to date. The staged payments of Barclays’ funding means the actual taxpayer contribution is likely to be far higher.

Despite being a minority funding partner, Barclays continues to benefit from blanket publicity from the taxpayer owned TfL.

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Tagged With: Cycle Hire

RECENT UPDATES

Tube and rail users to benefit from Oyster weekly fares cap

Mayor and TfL call on ministers to help plug funding gap

Tube to get full mobile phone coverage from 2024

TfL says Direct Vision Standard is already making HGVs safer for London road users




POPULAR

City Hall to move to Docklands as Mayor seeks to raise £55m for frontline services

‘Concern’ over TfL’s ability to deliver major projects in wake of Crossrail cost overruns

City Hall halts London Overground ticket office closures but many will still see opening hours reduced

Transport for London confirms bus cuts will go ahead despite passenger opposition

GOT A STORY?

As the original London news and scrutiny site we've been casting an eye over the capital's public services and politicians since 1999.

 

Many of our top stories started with a tip-off from a reader - if you've got something you'd like us to cover get in touch and we'll do the rest.

Stay In Touch

  • E-mail
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy