London’s controversial Garden Bridge should be cancelled rather than risk wasting any further public money amid escalating project costs and uncertainties, an influential MP has said.

 

Dame Margaret Hodge’s report on the planned pedestrian crossing of the Thames – commissioned by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in October – was published on Friday.

 

It argues that taxpayer contributions to the bridge have failed to secure value for money and says decisions were instead driven by electoral cycles.

 

It also points out that the project’s estimated construction costs have risen from £60M to over £200M but the Garden Bridge Trust has so far only secured £69M in private funding pledges.

 

When added to a public sector contribution of £60M this leaves an investment gap of at least £70M that needs to be raised to build the bridge. But no new pledges have been obtained since August 2016.

 

“I am sceptical that the Garden Bridge Trust will succeed in raising all the private capital monies required and I am firmly of the view that more public money will be needed to complete the construction,” writes Dame Margaret.

 

The project has already used £37.4M of public money and an agreement to underwrite cancellation costs by the Government could bring the bill to the taxpayer up to £46.4M.

 

“It would be better for the taxpayer to accept the financial loss of cancelling the project than to risk the potential uncertain additional costs to the public purse if the project proceeds,” she added. “In the present climate, with continuing pressures on public spending, it is difficult to justify further public investment in the Garden Bridge.”

 

The report also highlights that little progress has been made on raising money to fund the ongoing maintenance of a completed bridge.

 

It also raises concerns that there was not an open, fair and competitive process around the procurement of design and project management services for the scheme by Transport for London. It therefore recommends that greater transparency and more effective checks and balances be introduced for these processes.

 

Responding to the review’s findings Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wrote to Dame Margaret: “Your report raises extremely serious questions about the way the Garden Bridge project was handled under the previous administration at City Hall and its current financial viability.

 

“We will now take time to thoroughly understand your findings, to read the evidence you have collated and to think through its implications for the future.”

 

Also commenting on the report Garden Bridge Trust chairman Lord Mervyn Davies said: “We will be studying the report in detail and seeking a meeting with the Mayor to discuss next steps. The Trust remains as determined as ever to make the Garden Bridge happen which will bring huge benefits to London and the UK.”

 

(Photo: Arup)