London Assembly response to the Mayor's draft 2013/14 budget

In its cross-party response to the Mayor’s draft 2013/14 budget, our Budget and Performance Committee warns that the Assembly is unable to properly scrutinise the annual fares decision without more information about the alternatives.

We are also calling for the Mayor to publish Transport for London’s advice on his annual fares decision to justify above inflation fare rises.

This year the Mayor raised fares by inflation plus one per cent. The Committee want more information about the likely impact of alternatives - such as a fares freeze or a rise in line with inflation – on investment in the transport network.

The report goes on to comment that the continued refusal to provide information about the way fares are decided fails to reflect the Mayor’s manifesto commitment to transparency.

The report also calls for more information about how much the closure of police and fire stations would save and highlights the unknown cost of new police contacts points. It asks for greater clarity about estimated police numbers over the rest of the spending review period and warns of the risk that changes to the number of sergeants may affect performance.

The Mayor will present his draft budget to the full London Assembly at a special meeting on Friday 8 February, where the Assembly will have the chance to put forward amendments.

UPDATE

In May 2014, following many years of requests from the Budget & Performance Committee, the Mayor released the briefings he recieves from Transport for London prior to setting public transport fares. The briefings published here do not yet include 2011as GLA officers have been unable to find it.

TfL fares briefings 2008-13