No Tube U-turn - yet

Opponents say PPP will compromise safety

The disclosure that the government is still prepared to shelve its controversial plans to improve London underground does not constitute a policy U-turn, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers has said.

On Wednesday night Mr Byers told a committee of MPs if strict value-for-money - as well as safety - criteria were not met the public-private partnership (PPP) could be scrapped early next year.

The government has always said the PPP would need to satisfy the value-for-money test

Stephen Byers

The move comes after months of battling with London's mayor Ken Livingstone during which ministers insisted PPP was the best way to fund badly needed tube improvements.

But Mr Byers said his comments to the transport select committee were "nothing terribly original" and declared: "There has been no change of policy here."

He told BBC Radio 4's the World at One: "The government has been absolutely clear on this, and the chancellor as well as myself, have made it very clear that public-private partnerships are a way forward but not at any cost.

"We're not looking at this in a politically dogmatic way.

"What we're saying is: Public private partnerships will have to satisfy the value for money test, because we're investing some £13bn into London underground and we want to get a benefit for every pound that we're investing."

Livingstone reaction

Mr Byers has said he will publish the documents he will use to make the decision on whether to proceed with the tube PPP.

A report from accountants Ernst and Young on whether the maintenance contracts, which are still being negotiated, provide value for money will be released soon after he receives it around 10 January.

Mr Byers told MPs alternatives to PPP were being drawn up

Mr Livingstone - who joined the transport secretary on Thursday at a ceremony to mark the start of work on a new section of the tube - said he was not surprised at the possible scrapping of the PPP as Mr Byers had been saying that to him in private since the election.

"If there's a genuine investigation by accountants then inevitably they will come forward and say this does make it more dangerous, it's not as safe as the present system and it's certainly very expensive," the mayor said.

He was "very optimistic" that Mr Byers would then scrap PPP and hand over the tube to Bob Kiley, the capital's transport commissioner appointed by Mr Livingstone.

'No dogma'

Mr Byers told MPs on Wednesday night that it was "premature" to say that the PPP represented the best value for money.

He talked of it being a "once in a generation opportunity" and they were "not going to blow it for dogmatic reasons".

He said although some people thought PPP was the only way forward for the tube as far as he was concerned it had to achieve value for money and safety.

"If it doesn't deliver on those two then as far as I am concerned, it won't proceed."