Transport for London to cut 'several hundred' consultants jobs

Transport for London (TfL) will make massive cuts among consultants to help save £2.4bn over 10 years.

Several hundred jobs will go from TfL's 22,000-strong workforce, while consultants working on proposals for several schemes have had the projects cancelled.

The reduced headcount, which will also come from slashing temporary staff, is hoped to contribute to a £2.4bn saving that will go back into increasing capacity on the tube.

A TfL spokesman refused to specify when the job cuts would take force.

TfL commissioner Peter Hendy said the organisation hoped to avoid redundancies but would make cuts to "back office" operations that would not affect services.

The job losses came amid the axing of seven transport schemes worth a total of £3.5bn, including the £500m Thames Gateway Bridge.

London mayor Boris Johnson said : "I won't continue to waste our money, or taxpayers' money, on consultants and planners working on schemes that are either impractical or that simply do not have enough funding."