London mayor Boris Johnson has unveiled a Crossrail 2 Growth Commission to help maximise the benefits of the planned railway, while Surrey CC has launched a study into extending the route.
It is estimated the cross-London North to South line could add up to £7.9bn per annum to London’s gross value added (GVA) - the value of goods and services produced - unlocking land for up to 200,000 new homes and boosting job numbers.
The commission, which brings together the London boroughs, county councils outside London and businesses along the route, looks set to investigate how to deliver these returns as well as how some of the cash could be captured to help finance the project.
Transport for London (TfL) used local business levies to help pay for Crossrail 1 and in a statement from the mayor’s office officials suggested that house and land value increases could also be used for Crossrail 2.
It highlighted that ‘revenues to the exchequer are forecast to include higher stamp duty receipts of at least £20bn – both the stamp duty paid on sale and resale the additional homes unlocked - as a consequence of Crossrail 2’s impact on the values of existing homes along the line of the route’.
Mr Johnson said: ‘Crossrail 2 will help realise London’s full economic potential, increasing the nation’s productivity and creating thousands of new jobs and homes. Major projects take time to plan and prepare and with Crossrail 1 nearing completion, we must move quickly to the next transformational growth project, which could see even more benefits delivered.'
Michele Dix, TfL’s managing director for Crossrail 2, added: ‘The wider economic returns of Crossrail 2 will help secure London's economic potential and will generate tax revenues that will pay back the investment many times over.’
Past-chairman of the Local Government Association, Sir Merrick Cockell, has been appointed chairman of the Crossrail 2 Growth Commission.
He commented that the commission would ‘play a key role in helping ensure local development plans along the route meet their full potential’.
The news comes as Surrey CC is making a major push for the line to be extended even further past its borders.
The plans currently take in Shepperton, Epsom, Hampton Court, Chessington South and Surbiton stations on its southern tip, while extending to Cheshunt in the North.
Surrey CC has launched a feasibility study to assess the possibility of stretching the regional Crossrail 2 route to Woking and Guildford.
Mike Goodman, cabinet member for environment and planning at Surrey CC, said: ‘Nearly 130,000 Surrey residents travel to London by train every day and within 20 years daily commuter numbers on the south West Mainline into Waterloo alone will rise by 25%. It means cross-border infrastructure schemes are vital to ensure that not only London’s economy strengthens but also Surrey’s does too.
'That’s why we have commissioned a report to examine the possibility of extending Crossrail 2 further into Surrey. It would look at extending from Surbirton out to Woking via Walton and Weybridge and adding a route from Surbiton and Guildford using the existing south west mainline.’
Crossrail 2 would run underground through new 36km twin-bore tunnels between Wimbledon and Tottenham Hale and New Southgate, joining with the existing National Rail networks in Surrey and Hertfordshire.
