Crossrail 2: Property developers and housing associations call for 'firm commitment'

Crossrail 2: Property developers and housing associations today called on Phillip Hammond to give a firm commitment
Jeremy Selwyn / Evening Standard
Pippa Crerar3 April 2017

Property developers and housing associations today called on Phillip Hammond to give a firm commitment to Crossrail 2.

They told the Chancellor that a “green light” for the £30 billion project was “vital” to tackling the housing crisis.

The proposed north-south rail link would dramatically improve transport links for parts of London such as the Upper Lea Valley which are currently poorly connected.

A Government commitment would give home-builders the certainty needed to accelerate the development of up to 200,000 new homes across the capital and the South-East.

In a letter to Mr Hammond, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, the house-builders set out the role Crossrail 2 could play in “unlocking” new homes and commercial space.

Major firms including Taylor Wimpey, British Land, Grosvenor and the Berkeley Group, as well as all of the G15, London’s largest housing associations, urged them to proceed “without delay”. They wrote: “We see Crossrail 2, half of which will be directly funded by London, as a key boost to our collective efforts to tackle the housing crisis. We urge the Government to give the scheme its firm backing now so that Crossrail 2 can move ahead with certainty.”

About 30 per cent of the new homes would be outside London, supporting growth corridors between Cambridge and Stansted and south-west towards Portsmouth.

But some London MPs, City Hall, and businesses in the capital are concerned that the project, to be built by the early 2030s, is being eclipsed by HS3 in the north of England.

Mr Hammond failed to mention Crossrail 2 in his Budget and Whitehall sources have suggested the Government is looking again at how to fund the scheme. The capital has already committed to meeting half the cost but would struggle to proceed without a funding commitment from ministers.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “London and the South-East need new homes, and the Government can clearly show its long-term commitment to tackling the housing crisis by backing Crossrail 2.”

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