Boris welcomes TfL spending

The Royal Family criss-crossed the globe, at a cost of almost £1 million, to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee last year.

While the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh remained at home, touring the UK, their family travelled around the Commonwealth to mark the milestone.

The Princess Royal visited South Africa and Mozambique to celebrate her mother's 60-year reign, travelling on a scheduled long-haul return flight between London and Johannesburg costing just over £42,000.

For the opening of the Paralympic Games a month later, the Queen flew by chartered plane from Scotland to London at a cost of £16,000, then returned on the Royal Train for £20,000.

The Mayor has said the government's announcement to deliver long-term transport funding in Crossrail will help to "drive jobs and growth".

The Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin has told ITV London correspondent Simon Harris that he was "very pleased" that the Government had "recognised" the importance of London's transport infrastructure.

The Mayor has told ITV London correspondent Simon Harris that he welcomes government plans to push ahead with the building of the Crossrail line, and potentially the Crossrail 2.

Effective transport infrastructure in London benefits not just London but the whole country, the Chief Treasury Secretary said today.

Under the Spending guidelines, the Government has proposed:

• Providing over £5.8 billion in capital grant and a further £3.8 billion of borrowing power between 2015-16 and 2020-21.
• Explore the case for extending the line to Barking Riverside to unlock potential housing development.

• £2 million to fund a detailed study on the Crossrail 2, which would create a new high-frequency, high-capacity rail line running south west to north east across London.
• Investing £115 million to electrify the Gospel Oak to Barking rail line.

• Devolve part of the West Anglia rail franchise to the Mayor of London, aiming for the transfer to take place by the end of 2015.

An affordable housing bonanza is under way, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander suggested, which he said would be "truly transformative".

He said the coalition's Help to Buy scheme was already helping to get people on to the property ladder, but he acknowledged more needed to be done.

The Chief Secretary announced that the Government would be spending an additional £10 billion on school upgrades, alongside plans to rebuild the worst 261 schools.

Danny Alexander said:

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has reaffirmed the Government's funding commitment to allow Network Rail to deliver the largest programme of rail investment since the Victorian-era.

Mr Alexander said from 2015 funding will be in place to begin work to electrify the line which connects Gospel Oak and Barking in London.

He added the Government was committing £2 million to support a funding and financing study into Crossrail 2.