With the petition against changes that would limit the use of the Freedom Pass reaching tens of thousands of signatories, London Labour boroughs have seen the threat of a revolt at next year's May election. They issued the statement below yesterday;
Cllr Claire Holland, leader of London Councils’ Labour Group, said: “The previous Conservative government slashed funding for the Freedom Pass scheme, leaving councils to foot the bill.
“It’s clear that we need to ensure the Freedom Pass is funded sustainably, but this cannot be done at the expense of older Londoners.
“We know the Freedom Pass is a vital lifeline for our older residents and we must defend it. Labour councils will oppose any changes that would see restrictions placed on who can use it and which modes of transport it applies to.”
Sir Sadiq khan said: “The Freedom Pass is crucial for older Londoners, enabling them to travel around the city and stay connected to friends and family.
“While I have no control over the 66+ pass, Labour councils have my full support in committing to keep it.
“As Mayor, I am ensuring hundreds of thousands of older Londoners are also able to enjoy free travel by continuing to provide the 60+ Oyster card alongside other concessions for Londoners.
“The previous Tory government wanted to get rid of the 60+ Oyster card. It’s clear that only Labour can be trusted to protect concessionary travel for Londoners.”
23 comments:
Hopefully this will stay in place and not be attacked by someone from accounts
So will the Lib Dems, Tories, Greens, Reform etc also back keeping the Freedom Pass and 60+ London Oyster Card as they are??????????????????????????????
The statement is not true. Leaders of Labour Councils in London supported the Review into the Freedom Pass Scheme concerned about the rising costs and the impact on their Councils' budgets.
One contributor to the rising cost is the Labour Mayor's decision to raise the cost of underground fares by more than the rate of inflation.
As usual the unpopular Labour Mayor then blames others.
Labour think we are stupid.
What a ridiculous comment you make, of course the other parties agree, possibly with the exception of Reform. In the end the Freedom Pass gives substantial funding to TFL that would disappear without the Freedom Pass. We should remember that it was the Labour Party that wanted to remove the tube from the Freedom Pass, so praising yourselves a Labour is a bit odd, however, you have spotted that the current Labour Government haven't got a clue what they are doing.
and we think Labour are stupid
While Lib Dems, Tories, Greens, Reform etc remain silent on the matter!
Labour have panicked to avoid another Winter Fuel fiasco. The decisions about the Freedom Pass is made by London Boroughs Leader Committee. Labour has 21 out of 33 places - so a clear majority.
Faced with a 11% rise in the 'cost' of the Freedom Pass to £372 million across London the Leaders wanted a review to understand the reasons for such a large cost increase - after all the £372 million is shared out across all 33 of them and they all have serious financial pressures - including Brent with its massive Budget overspend.
The question is why is the cost of the Freedom Pass so high and why an increase of 11% from last year to this? Part of the reason will be the fare rise imposed by the Labour Mayor of London the other may be increased number of passes.
But why is the charge to the boroughs like Brent based on usage and cost of fares? After all if a bus travels from A to be and already has 20 passengers the cost of running that bus for Transport of London does not increase just because a pensioner gets in and gets a free ride? The cost of providing the bus, fuel and the driver remains the same if it is just 20 or 20+1!
It seems that the recharge to the 33 London Councils is based on a wrong formula and is a way to subsidise Transport for London and the London Mayor.
The 'fictional' threat to the Freedom Pass was clearly a clever trick to avoid proper scrutiny of the claimed £372 million recharge cost that London Council Tax payers are being forced to pay by Sadiq Khan.
If you are worried about costs in Brent look at...
- the £92.2m Brent Council are owed in unpaid council tax: https://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/25289452.brent-london-borough-unpaid-council-tax/
- the cost of cleaning up fly tips which Brent Council have allowed to get totally out of control
- the high salaries and final salary pensions of Brent Council Executives
- the cost of poor decisions such as the redevelopment of the Altamira in Stonebridge on which Brent Council wasted £5million and achieved nothing
- the £17.8million of NCIL money that Brent Council gave to multi-billion pound developer Quintain for their steps outside Wembley Stadium, which is not even public realm, whilst our pavements crumble
- the money Brent Council have spent re-fitting out the Civic Centre because of its poor design;
- etc, etc, etc.
I actually think flytips have improved
Why would anyone bother to comment on Labour made up story to cover the failings of the London Labour Leaders (including Comrade Butt!) who approved a review into the rising costs of the Freedom Pass and then panicked when they realised that if they cut free travel - as they cut winter fuel for pensioners - they would be hammered at the local elections in May.
We all know that Labour are financially incompetent and need to be KICKED OUT before they bankrupt Brent completely.
But still no comment from the Lib Dems, Tories, Greens, Reform etc re keeping the Freedom Pass and 60+ London Oyster Card as they are!!!
Just drive round the streets and you'll see that they haven't improved!
Better flytips?
If they cut the freedom pass imagine the number of unpaid volunteers they'd lose from local hospitals etc!
Silent? You are obviously deaf and illiterate. It was the Labour Party that came up with the idea of stopping the Freedom Pass. You count making up, the gaul of the Labour people is amazing.
Blame incompetent Labour at all levels
Using my 60+ London Oyster card on both the bus and tube it comes up as a 'Freedom Pass' which it isn't.
The 60+ London Oyster card is funded directly by Transport for London (TfL).
The Freedom Pass is funded by the 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation, with management overseen by London Councils.
So are TFL wrongly branding 60+ London Oyster Card fares as Freedom Pass fares to deliberately pass the costs onto the 32 London Boroughs??? This surely needs investigating
What about the fare dodgers who cost TFL millions each year?
Fare dodging epidemic: 1,000 face prosecution after being spotted pushing through Tube barriers | The Standard https://share.google/JV8isNy8MUJo7kuZW
Am on a London Overground train now at 8.55am on a Weds morning, it is 2 thirds empty.
If older people have their free travel taken away then later trains after 9.00am would be so quiet that as a lone female I'd feel very vulnerable and very anxious travelling on public transport.
Fly tipping goes had in hand with developer LAND acquisition colonialism- its very much an on/off war with population growth zoned car-free towered tenants. Sad, a bit like the 3 children's playgrounds being total removed from 3 public open spaces, again for LAND. In this case for GREENLAND.
If what "Anonymous21 January 2026 at 10:29" says is true can they explain why country lanes and villages also suffer with flytipping???
It's more likely due to illegal HMOs crammed with tenants where the greedy landlords won't pay for more bins and tell them to dump their waste on the streets.
Post a Comment