"Boris adds £14million to cost of Freedom Pass"
By Monty Meth - 11/01/2011
A five-year deal to share the extra cost of using the Freedom Pass at peak times before 9am on weekdays, agreed by all London councils and Transport for London (TfL) last February was scuppered in October by London Mayor Boris Johnson, who leads TfL.
It means that instead of paying £261.7 million to TfL in the coming year for being able to use the Freedom Pass on buses, tubes and DLR routes, London councils will be charged £275.48 million – an increase of almost £14 million which will have to be found by cash-pressed councils.
The total charge for the Freedom Pass to be shared by all 32 London councils and the City of London in the financial year 2011/12 is nearly £296 million. In addition to the above payment to TfL, overground train companies will get £17.9 million and £1.7 million will go to independent bus companies.
Islington council leader Catherine West, who leads the London Councils transport and environment committee, told our Forum: “With government cuts already hitting the poorest London boroughs hardest, the decision by TfL and Boris Johnson to renege on their five year deal came as a real blow.
“After urgent talks with TfL we’ve now agreed a settlement for 2011/12 but we remain in negotiations over further assistance to boroughs. I’m absolutely committed to protecting the Freedom Pass and the vital lifeline it provides to older and disabled Londoners. It’s the best concessionary fares scheme in the country and I’ll continue to fight any attempts to threaten or reduce it.”
The Freedom Pass is used by some 1.2 million older and disabled people in London and it can be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week on TfL routes. Outside London, the Freedom Pass is often restricted to bus routes after 9.30 am and train services vary.
Enfield Council’s share of the Freedom Pass cost in the coming year will be nearly £9.8 million. This is some £1.3 million more than last year, but part of the increase will be offset by a crafty move by the new coalition government to wrap up the national concessionary grant into the total annual fifi nancial settlement paid direct to individual councils.
So instead of the government grant of some £28 million going directly to TfL, which was then deducted from the amount charged for the Freedom Pass to each borough, the grant has been rolled into the lump sum going to each borough – known as the Formula Grant - leaving each council to share out the money to meet its varying demands for services, including that for the Freedom Pass.
Once the extra money going into the revenue support grant is deducted it could mean that the Freedom Pass will be costing Enfield’s council taxpayers an extra £400,000 this year.
Although the Freedom Pass is safe for another year, the danger signs are clearly visible with transport operators all demanding more money to match the fares increases they are imposing on people at large. In addition, there are siren calls for the Freedom Pass to be withdrawn as a universal benefit and restricted to the poorest pensioners.
The next move could well be an attempt to restrict the scope of the scheme and return to the off-peak restrictions that prevented its use before 9.30am – which stopped people using the pass for early hospital and other appointments.
The continuing anxiety about any possible curtailment in the Freedom Pass prompted the Friends of Jubilee Park to write to our three local MPs. Peter
Armstrong, their chair, wrote: “Many of our group are involved in caring for elderly and ill members of their family or friends, or taking grandchildren to and from school. Having the Freedom Pass saves carers, the NHS and the state time and money and this does need to be taken into account.”
Monty Meth
Enfield Over 50s Forum