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| Sadiq Khan's TfL board is impressively diverse. Now, how good are its maths? Sadiq Khan's TfL board is impressively diverse. Now, how good are its maths? | |
| (3 months later) | |
| The board of Transport for London (TfL) is, as Sadiq Khan promised, no longer dominated by white males. The new mayor’s appointees, announced on Tuesday, comprise seven women and five men who will join Khan himself, the board’s chair, and his deputy for transport Val Shawcross. | The board of Transport for London (TfL) is, as Sadiq Khan promised, no longer dominated by white males. The new mayor’s appointees, announced on Tuesday, comprise seven women and five men who will join Khan himself, the board’s chair, and his deputy for transport Val Shawcross. |
| They include business executives, an engineer, financial experts, transport campaigners and policy wonks and will be augmented by a union representative to be nominated by the TUC, a move that has prompted expressions of disquiet from London Assembly Tories, though Boris Johnson’s first TfL board actually included two union officials. Had such input been maintained, perhaps he’d have presided over fewer Tube strikes. | They include business executives, an engineer, financial experts, transport campaigners and policy wonks and will be augmented by a union representative to be nominated by the TUC, a move that has prompted expressions of disquiet from London Assembly Tories, though Boris Johnson’s first TfL board actually included two union officials. Had such input been maintained, perhaps he’d have presided over fewer Tube strikes. |
| Almost a third of the new board, whose role is to scrutinise and approve TfL spending and major policies, will come from ethnic minority groups - there was no BAME representation under Johnson - and there’s an increased representation of disabled people. In addition, the size of the board has been reduced by two - from 17 to 15 - and City Hall says payments to its members have been “restructured” to save £190,000 a year. Khan has hailed it as “slimmed down and representative”. Well done for all that. Now comes the hard part. | Almost a third of the new board, whose role is to scrutinise and approve TfL spending and major policies, will come from ethnic minority groups - there was no BAME representation under Johnson - and there’s an increased representation of disabled people. In addition, the size of the board has been reduced by two - from 17 to 15 - and City Hall says payments to its members have been “restructured” to save £190,000 a year. Khan has hailed it as “slimmed down and representative”. Well done for all that. Now comes the hard part. |
| When they meet for the first time on 22 September, board members who are earning their reduced but still quite tidy £16-£20,000 a year will have done some bracing homework on the financial challenges TfL faces under a mayor who needs to bridge a budget gap his own key policies have widened. | When they meet for the first time on 22 September, board members who are earning their reduced but still quite tidy £16-£20,000 a year will have done some bracing homework on the financial challenges TfL faces under a mayor who needs to bridge a budget gap his own key policies have widened. |
| Khan’s promised (and, so far, only partial) freeze of public transport fares, due to take effect at the start of the New Year, will lessen the revenue the transport body had based its financial plans on at the same time as the government is depriving it of grant. Meanwhile, Khan’s wish for 50% of homes built on TfL land to be “affordable” to middle-income first-time buyers points to a further reduction in income for funding the fares freeze than would have been the case, unless that part of the commercial development programme is adapted or intensified. | Khan’s promised (and, so far, only partial) freeze of public transport fares, due to take effect at the start of the New Year, will lessen the revenue the transport body had based its financial plans on at the same time as the government is depriving it of grant. Meanwhile, Khan’s wish for 50% of homes built on TfL land to be “affordable” to middle-income first-time buyers points to a further reduction in income for funding the fares freeze than would have been the case, unless that part of the commercial development programme is adapted or intensified. |
| Can these circles be squared? A novel aspect of the election campaign was the Labour candidate insisting that TfL, though good in many ways, could be a leaner and more entrepreneurial business machine, while his Conservative rival protested that any funding cut in the form of the fares freeze would wreck its finances - this following years of Tory complaints that TfL is inefficient, “bloated” and so on. It isn’t difficult to find impressive persons, most notably non-politicians, who’ve dealt with TfL’s culture and accounting practices who think Khan is absolutely right. But others firmly disagree. | Can these circles be squared? A novel aspect of the election campaign was the Labour candidate insisting that TfL, though good in many ways, could be a leaner and more entrepreneurial business machine, while his Conservative rival protested that any funding cut in the form of the fares freeze would wreck its finances - this following years of Tory complaints that TfL is inefficient, “bloated” and so on. It isn’t difficult to find impressive persons, most notably non-politicians, who’ve dealt with TfL’s culture and accounting practices who think Khan is absolutely right. But others firmly disagree. |
| Responding on Twitter to my piece about TfL’s upgrade plans for Harrow-on-the-Hill station, a project in which some of the questions about how Khan will make TfL’s ends meet are distilled, the Conservative now former TfL board deputy chair and Johnson transport lieutenant Daniel Moylan predicted that the outcome of Khan’s approach will be that he “will force TfL to postpone yet further necessary capacity upgrades”. Another experienced hand, who shall remain nameless, believes the ultimate direction of travel will be to the Treasury for a chat with a man called Mr Hammond, cap in hand and armed with arguments about the crucial importance of London’s economy to post-Brexit Britain’s wellbeing. | Responding on Twitter to my piece about TfL’s upgrade plans for Harrow-on-the-Hill station, a project in which some of the questions about how Khan will make TfL’s ends meet are distilled, the Conservative now former TfL board deputy chair and Johnson transport lieutenant Daniel Moylan predicted that the outcome of Khan’s approach will be that he “will force TfL to postpone yet further necessary capacity upgrades”. Another experienced hand, who shall remain nameless, believes the ultimate direction of travel will be to the Treasury for a chat with a man called Mr Hammond, cap in hand and armed with arguments about the crucial importance of London’s economy to post-Brexit Britain’s wellbeing. |
| It is notable that one of the mere two members to survive from Johnson’s time, albeit on two-year contracts compared with the others’ four, is Conservative clean energy businessman Michael Liebreich (the other survivor is Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson). Liebreich seriously considered seeking to become the Tory mayoral candidate before deferring to Zac Goldsmith but was not a signatory to a letter sent in April to the Zac-backing Evening Standard from six fellow board members, including Moylan, arguing that a Khan fares freeze would “mean a cut in investment”. | It is notable that one of the mere two members to survive from Johnson’s time, albeit on two-year contracts compared with the others’ four, is Conservative clean energy businessman Michael Liebreich (the other survivor is Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson). Liebreich seriously considered seeking to become the Tory mayoral candidate before deferring to Zac Goldsmith but was not a signatory to a letter sent in April to the Zac-backing Evening Standard from six fellow board members, including Moylan, arguing that a Khan fares freeze would “mean a cut in investment”. |
| As its eclectic personnel show, the new board will quite rightly be concerned with far more than TfL’s balance sheet. But with a revised TfL business plan, the government autumn statement and his own transport strategy very much in mind, Khan will want all the number-crunching muscle on his side that he can get. | As its eclectic personnel show, the new board will quite rightly be concerned with far more than TfL’s balance sheet. But with a revised TfL business plan, the government autumn statement and his own transport strategy very much in mind, Khan will want all the number-crunching muscle on his side that he can get. |