The Government has agreed a loan of up to £1bn that will allow London Underground to fund an extension of the Northern Line to Nine Elms on the South Bank.
Published on
December 7, 2012
The Government has agreed a loan of up to £1bn that will allow London Underground to fund an extension of the Northern Line to Nine Elms on the South Bank.
The announcement, which came in the Chancellor’s 2012 Autumn Statement, follows months of negotiations between the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership and HM Treasury over the financing package for the new Tube link.
The breakthrough has been welcomed by the leader of Wandsworth Council and co-chair of the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership Ravi Govindia:
“This is fantastic news for London. The Northern Line Extension will breathe new life into Nine Elms on the South Bank – delivering 25,000 new jobs, 16,000 new homes, new parks and two new town centres. It will revive the last dormant district of central London and yield billions of pounds in new economic growth and tax revenues.
“The announcement will add momentum to the investment programme and ignite a new wave of interest in this rapidly changing part of London.”
The loan will be repaid through a tariff on private development projects within this 450 acre regeneration area, and through future growth in business rates revenue within a new Nine Elms Enterprise Zone.
There are 27 development sites currently in the planning pipeline including Battersea Power Station and the new US Embassy. Several schemes are now under constuction.
The proposal would create two new Tube stops – one on Wandsworth Road in Lambeth, the other at Battersea Power Station in Wandsworth.
TfL is currently holding its third and final public consultation on the scheme before the application for a Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) is finalised in spring 2013. The TWAO is needed before construction of this large piece of infrastructure can begin.
If planning approval is obtained then construction of the Northern line extension could begin in 2015. Trains could start running in 2020.