§ Mr. Grimondasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how much over the last three years has been paid from Government funds to transport in London (a) for capital prospects, (b) as annual subsidy and (c) by way of writing off losses.
§ Dr. GilbertDuring the period in question direct payments made to the London Transport Executive from Government funds for capital projects were as follows:
Infrastructure grants under Section 56, Transport Act 1968 Grants for new buses under Section 32, Transport Act 1968 £ million £ million 1973–74 … 15.4 3.48 1974–75 … 19.6 3.17 1975–76 … — 4.69 From 1st April 1975 infrastructure grants were absorbed into the transport supplementary grant, which is a block grant for transport purposes introduced under Section 6 of the Local Government Act 1974.
No revenue subsidy was paid by Government to London Transport in 1973–74 and 1974–75. In 1975–76 transport supplementary grant of £97.663 million was paid to the Greater London Council towards the eligible expenditure of the council and the London boroughs on public transport—including capital and revenue payments to London Transport—highways construction and maintenance, traffic management, car and lorry parking, road safety and freight transport. Of this figure, £64.450 million was in respect of fares subsidies for buses and the London Underground.
No losses by the London Transport Executive have been written off in the past three years.