E&Y under fire over Tube report
Consultants from Ernst & Young came under fire yesterday when they were unable to say whether the part-privatisation of the Tube would be value for money.
The experts from the Big Five firm were grilled by parliament’s Transport sub-committee following publication of their review of London Underground’s financial analysis for the controversial public private partnership proposals.
Although the review was used by Stephen Byers, the embattled Transport minister, to show the plans would be value for money, E&Y said there were a number of ‘subjective assumptions’ in the LU analysis.
The firm also made clear the scope of its review was only to assess the robustness of the London Underground analysis – under questioning from the committee, chaired by Labour’s Gwyneth Dunwoody, the consultants refused to say if the scheme itself would be value for money compared to a public sector bid to run the Tube.