Greater London Authority<\/a> (GLA) was second to TfL in the debt list, with \u00a34.7billion of their own, though officials insist borrowing levels have enabled them to unveil the Elizabeth Line and the Northern Line extension in recent years.<\/p>\nAs a whole, GLA bodies held \u00a320.1 billion of debt in 2025-26, the highest of any category of local authority.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Elks, grassroots development manager at the TaxPayers\u2019 Alliance, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): \u201cLondoners will be horrified that GLA bodies are sitting on more than \u00a320 billion of debt, with TfL alone owing an eye-watering \u00a314 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the Mayor\u2019s watch, taxpayers and farepayers are being left exposed to a mountain of borrowing while basic transport performance remains a constant source of frustration. Sadiq Khan must get a grip on City Hall\u2019s finances, rein in TfL\u2019s debt pile and stop treating Londoners as an endless cash machine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over a third of the debt for both TfL and the GLA was originally loaned from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) and used to purchase commercial property until the practice was effectively banned in 2020 under the previous government. This practice saddled many local authorities with large debts because the value of those assets fells below the amount they bought them for in some cases. Meanwhile they still had to pay back the full amount they borrowed with interest.<\/p>\n
Under the new rules, authorities have to confirm they do not intend to borrow primarily for yield \u2013 purchasing property or other assets in order to generate a profit if their value goes up \u2013 at any point during the borrowing cycle.<\/p>\n
A TfL spokesperson said: \u201cBorrowing has been, and remains, an important source of financing for Transport for London (TfL) and supports its capital investment programme which supports not only the city, but the wider UK through its extensive supply chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll incremental borrowing raised by TfL is in line with its planned prudent limits authorised by its Board and within its own affordability limits. TfL borrowing is monitored by each of the three global credit rating agencies who have all recently reaffirmed TfL\u2019s credit quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cBorrowing is only used to fund capital expenditure, and for the past three years, TfL has made an operating surplus, meaning its income covered the cost of operating its business while also partly paying for renewals and capital expenditure. Any operating surplus is then reinvested into further capital improvements, therefore minimising the need for additional borrowing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A GLA spokesperson told the LDRS: \u201cBeing able to borrow has enabled the GLA and TfL to deliver great things for London, including the Elizabeth Line and the Northern Line extension \u2013 two huge infrastructure projects that have driven jobs and growth in London and around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe GLA sets an annual balanced budget that focuses on delivering on the issues that matter most to Londoners and all debt is fully funded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe operate under local authority rules, but the GLA and TfL are not councils and provide transport services for more people than the population of Scotland and Wales combined. That\u2019s why it\u2019s wrong to compare our borrowing levels with local councils.\u201d<\/p>\n
What does having such a big debt mean?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s common practice for local authorities to borrow large sums of money to finance big projects, though they are obliged to ensure they only borrow what they can afford. In the case of the GLA, the Local Government Act states that the Mayor is responsible for determining how much the authority and its functional bodies like TfL can afford to borrow.<\/p>\n
The main risk associated with having a large debt pile is that servicing that debt \u2013 paying back the interest and paying off the borrowed sum \u2013 can take up vital funds needed to keep services running. A number of local authorities in England, including Croydon, have effectively declared bankruptcy (Section 114) in recent years because of this. While local authorities can\u2019t actually go bankrupt, a Section 114 notice declares that income for the forthcoming year will not cover outgoings.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no suggestion TfL or the GLA are close to issuing Section 114 notices, however the more debt they hold the more taxpayer money is used to pay it off rather than funding essential services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New analysis from the TaxPayers\u2019 Alliance (TPA) shows the transport body holds almost \u00a314 billion of the record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1087507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,2825,393,4884,18237,257,215910,1264,11513,16,15],"class_list":["post-1087506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-debt","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-greater-london-authority","tag-london","tag-taxpayers-alliance","tag-tfl","tag-transport-for-london","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1087506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1087507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1087506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1087506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1087506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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