Mayor of London urged to restart Crossrail 2 - and seek new tax powers to fund it

"The report spends most of its time looking at why building new infrastructure in London (and the UK generally) is so much more expensive than in most other countries, and suggests that the UK could slash costs if it wanted to. The headline claim is that costs could be lowered by 20-50%, although the report acknowledges that many of the cheaper examples cited would not be suitable for London and, at best, costs could be cut by 15-20%, if at all."

"There are areas that are already widely known to contribute to higher costs and could be reduced, such as cutting the number of contractors on projects, as each interface between suppliers raises issues and costs. But that would also mean it's harder for smaller firms to win contracts. There is also the widely known problem of stop-start planning for long-term projects, which means suppliers can't invest and plan for sales that might take a decade or more to arrive,"

Mayor should restart planning for Crossrail 2 and argue for more powers to raise local taxes to pay for it. Building new infrastructure in London and the UK is substantially more expensive than in most other countries. Costs could theoretically be cut by 20–50%, though realistic savings for London are likely 15–20% at best. High costs stem from fragmented contracting, which increases interfaces and raises issues and prices, and from stop-start long-term planning that discourages supplier investment. A central database of underground assets is being built, but utility owners often do not know exact pipe locations, and most tunnels lie deep, limiting database benefits to stations and ventilation shafts.

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