LONDON has been unfairly burdened’ with Crossrail costs on top of the way compulsory purchases along the route have been handled. That’s the view from a London Assembly investigation into the funding for the �16bn super tube’ linking Canary Wharf and the City with Heathrow

By Mike Brooke

LONDON has been unfairly burdened’ with the costs of Crossrail on top of the way compulsory purchases of businesses and homes along the route have been handled.

That’s the view from a London Assembly investigation into the funding for the �16 billion super tube’ linking Canary Wharf and the City with Heathrow Airport.

A report by the Assembly’s transport committee questions why London is forced to pay more than half the cost of a project that is estimated to generate �22bn for the Government over the next 10 years.

Eight of the 37 Crossrail stations are outside Greater London, it points out, yet only London businesses are contributing through the Mayor’s supplementary business rates.

“Crossrail’s initial dealings with displaced businesses and residents have been very disappointing,” said Assembly transport chair Caroline Pidgeon. “Some negotiations have been poorly handled.”

Her committee is critical of Crossrail’s negotiations to take over premises by compulsory purchase to make way for construction work.

It also feels there is still “an element of risk” to a project of this scale in the current economic and political environment. The report calls for more details on targets for jobs for Londoners during construction and when the line is up and running.

Crossrail will expand London’s overcrowded rail and Tube network capacity by 10 per cent when it opens in 2017, linking Heathrow Airport directly to the West End, City and Canary Wharf and on to Abbey Wood, with a branch from Whitechapel out to Stratford and Shenfield.