Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to probe £15m backing for Garden Bridge

A financial dossier on the Garden Bridge is to be passed to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has demanded a dossier of financial data about the Garden Bridge before making a final decision on whether the Government should continue supporting the £175 million project.

His office has asked the Garden Bridge Trust, the body building the Thomas Heatherwick-designed crossing, for extra information about the £36.5 million that has already been spent and how the last £30 million needed to complete the funding will be raised.

He is due to decide in days whether to agree to the trust’s request to extend a £15 million Government underwriting till September next year.

This commits taxpayers to meet the trust’s unpaid bills if the bridge does not go ahead.

The underwriting guarantee is a crucial element to the overall financing. Without it the trust will not be able to sign off its accounts for the year to the end of October — due to be filed with Companies House by today.

That would be a huge setback to the trust’s efforts to persuade the private sector to back the tree-covered bridge spanning the Thames between Temple and the South Bank.

Construction work was due to have begun this month but has been delayed till autumn, mainly by hold-ups in the complex negotiations with councils and landowners.

However, the trust’s executive director Bee Emmott said she remained optimistic that the underwriting will be secured.

She said ministers and Mayor Sadiq Khan understood the importance of London “continuing to thrive and show it is on top of its game” post-Brexit via bold new projects such as the bridge.

The project is due to receive £60 million from the taxpayer, half from central Government and half from Transport for London. To date, £145 million out of the total needed has been committed.

Mr Khan has indicated he supports the bridge, which was the brainchild of actress Joanna Lumley, but will not commit any extra money to it.

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