§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much the(a) Tube Lines and (b) Metronet consortia have spent on bid costs as part of their PPP bids for London Underground projects. [93397]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe total costs of all of the bidders, successful and unsuccessful, are estimated to be around £270 million. As my reply of 13 January 2003Official Report, column 398 W to the hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne) explained, the PPP amounts to modernisation of the entire underground network over the next 30-years. The level of bid costs reflects this and also the lengthy duration of the bidding process, which commenced in October 1999. Nonetheless, the level of bid costs represents only an extremely small proportion of the value of investment that will be delivered over the life of the contracts.