The UK government funded the Garden Bridge project against official advice, the National Audit Office has found.
In a highly critical report, the NAO said the controversial £175m proposed footbridge, linking Temple with the South Bank, received £30m of government funds despite transport department officials warning the project represented poor value for money.
The report said that although the taxpayer cash was meant to encourage private donations, there was a “significant” possibility the project could yet fail to proceed and the taxpayer could now end up on the hook for £22.5m if the bridge is not built, due to £13.5m in costs related to pre-construction activity and £9m in cancellation liability.
The investigation has found that there still remains a significant risk that the project won’t go ahead as the Garden Bridge Trust charity that is in charge of building and maintaining the bridge has not yet secured the land on the South Bank for the bridge’s south landing.
The report also states that government ministers ignored the advice of civil servants on at least two occasions not to extend funding to the Garden Bridge Trust.
Civil servants had said the transport benefits of the project were “limited” and the project presented a “relatively high level of risk to value for money”.
But former transport secretary Sir Patrick McLoughlin ignored these warnings and repeatedly agreed to increase the amount the Trust could spend on the project prior to construction.
McLoughlin issued a formal ministerial direction to civil servants requiring them to extend the taxpayers’ exposure and underwrite liabilities of £15m if the project did not go ahead.
That ministerial direction was issued after cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood wrote to the Department for Transport (DfT) expressing the “frustration” of David Cameron and then chancellor George Osborne at perceived hold-ups to the funding.
The NAO said the initial commitment to provide £30m of taxpayers’ money was made by Osborne to current London mayor Saddiq Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, without any involvement of the DfT.
Under the agreement in autumn 2013 the mayor would contribute a further £30m while the remainder – then estimated at £115m – was to come from private funding.
In a statement today, the Garden Bridge Trust said that it was not seeking extra public money and added: “It is right that there is scrutiny of the project because it involves public money and transparency is good for us at an uncertain time.
“The Garden Bridge Trust has made strong progress with its partners in discharging nearly all its planning conditions, completed detailed pre-construction work, and has nearly £70m of private money raised with more announcements in the pipeline.”
Khan has ordered a review of the bridge’s funding but still remains publicly committed to the project.
Comments are closed.