Still unanswered

Every question this newsroom's reporting ran into that the public documents it read did not answer, gathered from every story on the site. Each is a gap in what London publishes about itself — a contract without a value, a decision without a paper trail, a figure no document confirms. An answer may exist somewhere we have not read; a question stays here until the record answers it.

Open questions
116
Stories
44

The questions

Neighbourhoods & Culture

Vauxhall One BID levy set at 1.56% would raise up to £1.44m a year from 2027

  1. How many businesses will be entitled to vote in November: the report gives more than 300 supported in the last term and a survey reaching 300 levy payers, but no count of eligible properties.
  2. Why the report's timetable puts the instruction to hold the ballot on 20 August, a day before the decision is due to be taken.
  3. What the turnout and margins were at the three earlier Vauxhall One ballots, which the report records as successful without figures.

Boroughs

Southwark approved £62.7m of electrical work more than two years after it began

  1. When Southwark will award its new communal lighting and electrical testing contracts; the report says only that the extension holds while the procurement is concluded, and gives no date.
  2. What extended Southwark's adaptations contracts from 31 May to 31 July 2026, the two dates the council's own October 2025 report and August 2026 notice give for their expiry.

Boroughs

Southwark is due to extend expired adaptations contracts for the third time since 2024

  1. What extended the adaptations contracts from 31 May to 31 July 2026, the two dates the council's own October 2025 report and August 2026 notice give for their expiry; no adaptations decision appears on the register rows for January to 15 August 2026.
  2. How many households received adaptations under these contracts, or are waiting for them; the officer reports carry spending figures but no volumes.

Transport

TfL to start £10.8m Brent Cross flyover repair, four years after weight limit

  1. What happened to the up to £50m TfL said in 2022 it was seeking, and what the whole Brent Cross Interchange renewal programme will cost; the committee papers and the department's Major Road Network pages are both out of reach from this desk.
  2. Which bus routes are affected by the drop to one lane in each direction; neither the release nor the project page names one.

Transport

Power failure at Paddington cuts Elizabeth line to Heathrow and Reading

  1. When TfL expects to restore Elizabeth line services between Paddington and Heathrow and Reading; the entry names the fault but carries no repair estimate.
  2. How many lines are disrupted on a typical weekday, which would show whether five at once is out of the ordinary; the status feed carries no such measure.

City Hall

Mayor's £30m AI and jobs package carries £12m announced the month before

  1. Which decisions will authorise the £18m and the £12m, and when the money reaches providers; nothing signed between 7 April and 5 August approves either sum.
  2. What the remaining £200,000 of the £18m pays for, once the two named programmes are counted.
  3. Whether the £18m is new money or an allocation from the £1.7bn integrated settlement approved in April, whose programme-level table is a separate document from the decision.

Housing & Planning

Mayor's £50m stalled-estates fund passes its spend deadline with no estates named

  1. Which estates and boroughs received a share of the £50m, and how much each was allocated; the decision delegates that to the Executive Director of Housing and Land and names no recipient.
  2. Whether the £50m was spent by the March 2026 deadline the decision set, and what became of any unspent balance.
  3. How many of the expected four to six sites had a positive resident ballot, which the decision lists as a preferred condition.

Boroughs

Southwark hands £7m SEND bus contract to HATS without tender for a second time

  1. Why Southwark chose a direct award rather than a competitive tender for the second time running; the decision page gives no reason and the report behind it could not be read from the desk.
  2. Whether the bus contract could have been let through the council's own SEND vehicles framework, approved last September at £25.6m over eight years; neither record links the two.

City Hall

Mayor allocates £58.7m to retrofit up to 5,000 social homes in London

  1. Which mayoral decision authorises the £58.7m and what completion dates and conditions it sets; no such decision appears among those signed between 29 June and 5 August, and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's own announcement of the £295m fund could not be consulted for this story.
  2. Whether the £58.7m forms part of the £231m allocated to London for 2025-2028, or sits on top of it.
  3. How the £58.7m divides between London boroughs and housing associations, and how many homes each is expected to retrofit.

Neighbourhoods & Culture

City Hall is due to start commenting on London licence applications this summer

  1. How many licensing applications City Hall would receive in a year under the pilot: the Home Office's annual alcohol and late night refreshment licensing statistics carry licensing-authority level figures but could not be consulted for this story, and no Greater London Authority or borough page reached publishes a London total.
  2. What the pilot will cost and how it will be staffed: the Mayor's press release gives neither figure.
  3. The date the test service starts, which the press release puts only as later in summer 2026.

Things to Do

Mayor gives 13 boroughs nearly £500,000 to close streets for al fresco events

  1. On which dates each Summer Streets scheme runs and when they finish; the release names streets but gives no date ranges except the Lower Marsh Saturday pattern, and the GLA's events calendar lists none of the schemes.
  2. What last year's Summer Streets fund was worth, which would allow a year-on-year comparison; the release names the four boroughs it covered without a figure, and the press release index reaches 2026 releases only.
  3. What each borough actually received; every figure in the release is a ceiling, stated as up to £100,000 or up to £10,000.

Housing & Planning

Southwark approves 15-storey student block over Tube station with 44 social rent homes

  1. How many student rooms the consented building contains; the planning record gives floorspace only, and the officer report to committee could not be consulted for this story.
  2. Whether the Mayor of London has concluded the referral stage on 24/AP/2770 and on what date; the GLA's referral pages could not be consulted for this story.
  3. Which of the datahub's own fields for 24/AP/2770 is correct: the status of "Lapsed" dated 5 September 2025, or the approval dated 15 April 2026.

Boroughs

Southwark is due to consult on moving Beormund School, 15 months into a £14.9m build

  1. Whether the relocation being consulted on is the move into the new building at the former Bellenden School site, on what date it would happen, and what the consultation asks: the consultation issue record names no destination, no date and no questions, and the accompanying report could not be consulted for this story.
  2. What kind of school Beormund is and how many pupils it has: neither the 2023 procurement strategy nor the 2025 construction award describes the provision or its capacity, the council's schools and education pages do not list individual schools, and the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register and the school's own website could not be consulted for this story.
  3. The main works budget Southwark approved at Gateway 1 in March 2023, against which the £14,949,861 award of May 2025 could be set: the record places that figure "as identified in the closed version of this report".

Things to Do

Piccadilly trains skip Turnham Green on six autumn days, with no alternative named

  1. Whether the Acton Main Line entry covers the weeks between 18 October and 3 January or only those two Sundays; the entry sets the two dates down without a linking word, and TfL's Elizabeth line pages and press release archive carry nothing on the works.
  2. Why Piccadilly line trains will not stop at Turnham Green and Earl's Court on those six days; the Piccadilly line upgrade works page lists different dates on a different section of the line, and the press release archive carries no announcement of them.
  3. How many passengers use Turnham Green, Earl's Court, Acton Main Line or Canada Water, which would give these non-stops a scale; the figures sit in TfL's annual station entry and exit counts on its crowding data portal, which could not be consulted for this story.

Transport

Piccadilly line to shut between Cockfosters and Uxbridge for three days from 18 August

  1. Whether Piccadilly tickets will be accepted on other operators or on local buses through the closed central London section; the record names three replacement bus routes, all outside central London, and no ticket acceptance.
  2. How many passengers use the section closing between Cockfosters and Uxbridge; TfL's station footfall files were not available to consult.
  3. Why the line closes on those three days, and whether the work forms part of the £3.4bn upgrade; the closure record gives no reason and the upgrade page names no sections for its signalling work.

City Hall

Assembly asks Mayor to lobby Government over £55m cut to police technology budget

  1. The value of the Palantir contract MOPAC blocked, the date of the decision and who took it: the GLA decisions register has no Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime category, MOPAC's own decisions and publications pages could not be consulted for this story, and the Police and Crime Committee's letter of 13 July could not be consulted for this story.
  2. How much of the withdrawn Home Office productivity funding would have come to the Met: the committee's release and publication page give no Met figure, and the Budget and Performance Committee's letter of 7 July could not be consulted for this story.
  3. Whether the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime have replied to the two letters.

Housing & Planning

Lambeth leaves 2024/25 developer contributions statement undecided nine months on

  1. How much section 106 and levy money Lambeth held unspent at 31 March 2025; the 2024/25 statement is undetermined and the published 2023/24 statement could not be consulted for this story.
  2. What deadline the CIL Regulations 2010, regulation 121A, set for publishing an infrastructure funding statement; the regulations could not be consulted for this story.
  3. Whether a revised date has been set for approving and publishing the 2024/25 statement; the forward plan still gives only "not before 11 November 2025" and publication "on or before 31 December 2025".

Boroughs

Lambeth is due to approve a £5.675m SEND bus extension that began on 1 July

  1. What the London Hire SEND bus contract originally cost and when it began: the decision page gives no original value or start date, Lambeth's decisions register carries no award of it in any year from 2021 to July 2026, and Cabinet's July agendas for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 carry none either.
  2. Whether the London Hire contract is called off from the council's passenger transport approved provider list, which runs to 31 July 2026 while this extension runs to 31 July 2028; the decision record does not say, and London Hire is not named on the provider list award page.
  3. How many children the buses carry and on how many routes: the decision papers give no figure, the children's services scrutiny sub-committee's July 2025 report on SEND and alternative provision publishes none on its agenda, and one enclosure is restricted with no reason stated on the decision page.

Things to Do

Jubilee line trains skip Southwark for six and a half hours a day to 11 September

  1. How many passengers use Southwark station on a weekday, which would give the non-stopping a scale; the figure sits in TfL's annual station entry and exit counts on its crowding data portal, which could not be consulted for this story.
  2. What the over-station development at Southwark is and when it completes; TfL's press release archive carries no announcement naming the scheme, and Places for London's property pages could not be consulted for this story.
  3. Whether the Notting Hill Carnival on 30 and 31 August brings station closures in the Notting Hill area; TfL's station closures page lists no entries there at this stage.

City Hall

British Transport Police start four-month facial recognition trial at Victoria station

  1. Which three Assembly members voted against the motion on 2 July and what reasons they gave; the minutes of that meeting could not be consulted for this story.
  2. What the four-month trial costs and which body pays: TfL's board papers page lists no 2026 item on it, and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime decisions register could not be consulted for this story.
  3. Which TfL stations beyond Victoria will host the trial.

Neighbourhoods & Culture

Lambeth approves £983,912 of London Eye planning money for Waterloo and South Bank

  1. Which projects the £983,912 funds in 2026-27 and how much each receives: the council's decision record names none, and the South Bank Employers' Group's own annual reviews and project pages could not be consulted for this story.
  2. How much London Eye section 106 money Lambeth still holds unspent: the decision refers to a review of retained reserves without a figure, and the council's most recent published infrastructure funding statement covers 2023/24.
  3. When the joint review with the South Bank Finance Group is due to report, and whether it will be published before the 2027-28 allocation is approved.

Housing & Planning

London planning dataset labels 832 Haringey schemes major, one of them a garden office

  1. Whether Haringey supplies the development-type values or the Greater London Authority derives them, and which body would correct them; the datahub carries no publisher statement or error-reporting route.
  2. Whether Haringey's own planning register types these applications the same way; the borough's public register could not be consulted for this story.
  3. Whether the records typed major feed published major-application performance figures or housing delivery monitoring; the GLA's monitoring pages could not be consulted for this story.

Things to Do

TfL closes Windrush line at Clapham Junction on Sunday, one of seven lines with works

  1. Which stations the Windrush and Mildmay track works cover on 15 and 16 August, and what replacement buses run; the six-month look-ahead document could not be consulted for this story.
  2. Whether the Charing Cross national rail closure covers Sunday 16 August itself; TfL dates the entry "Until Sunday 16 August", and Southeastern's and National Rail's engineering works pages could not be consulted for this story.

Boroughs

Lambeth lines up its own votes for Vauxhall BID and leaves the proposal unpublished

  1. The levy rate proposed for Vauxhall One's fourth term, the income it would raise, how many businesses would be entitled to vote and the term's start and end dates; the statutory BID proposal carrying those figures is not among the papers Lambeth published, and Vauxhall One's own website and the company's Companies House accounts could not be consulted for this story.
  2. What Lambeth's own Vauxhall One levy bill is now; the 2016 record puts it at £28,618.20 for 2016/17 and neither the 2021 nor the 2026 record updates it.
  3. Why Lambeth stopped publishing a BID's own proposal alongside its ballot decisions after 2021; the 2023 Brixton, 2023 South Bank and 2026 Vauxhall One records give no reason.

Neighbourhoods & Culture

Lambeth is due to order a £2,500 ballot on Vauxhall One BID's fourth term

  1. The levy rate, the projected levy income and what the levy would fund in the fourth term: no council page carries them, and Vauxhall One's fourth-term proposal and the company's latest accounts could not be consulted for this story.
  2. Whether Lambeth will again pay the BID levy on the properties it owns inside the area, and how much: the 2016 decision set it at £28,618.20 for 2016/17 and the 2026 record gives no figure.
  3. The result and turnout of the 2021 Vauxhall One re-ballot: the 2021 decision record covers the authorisation only, Lambeth's BID page carries no ballot results, and the BID's own site could not be consulted for this story.

Transport

TfL puts London's cycleway network at 450km, longer than the 402km Tube

  1. What TfL spends on cycleways in a year, and what the 450km network cost to build; the figures sit in the 2026 Business Plan and the annual report and statement of accounts for 2024/25, neither available to consult.
  2. When the network passed 400km, and whether TfL holds a target for total cycleway kilometres; the release names no earlier milestone, and no milestone appears in TfL's press releases for July, August or September 2025.
  3. How many cyclists were killed or seriously injured in each year of the decade of growth; those numbers sit in TfL's Casualties in Greater London reports, which were not available to consult.

City Hall

GLA land company has completed 15,135 of 68,000 homes and is late repaying £300m loan

  1. The balance outstanding on the £300m loan and the date repayment is now due; the committee's notice gives neither, the GLA's accounts page publishes no GLA Land and Property financial statements after 2018-19, the committee's agenda pack and minutes for the 9 July session could not be consulted for this story, and the company's filings at Companies House could not be consulted for this story.
  2. How many of the 68,000 homes in the company's 25-year target, and of the 15,135 completed, are affordable or social rent homes.
  3. Whether the Budget and Performance Committee will publish a report or letter from its 9 July session, and by when.

Housing & Planning

Mayor's draft London Plan proposes 558,000 homes and a return to 35% thresholds

  1. What affordable housing thresholds will apply to the boroughs outside the "over a third" reverting to 35 per cent in 2028, and which boroughs fall into each group; the draft plan and its consultation resources on the GLA's programmes pages could not be consulted for this story.
  2. How 558,000 homes by 2037 compares with the ten-year housing target in the adopted 2021 London Plan's Policy H1, and with recent completions; the Policy H1 pages and the London Plan Annual Monitoring Reports could not be consulted for this story.
  3. When the Examination in Public into the draft plan will begin and who will chair it; the mayoral release gives only an expected adoption date of early 2028.

Things to Do

London Plan consultation on 558,000 homes closes 15 October, five sessions left

  1. The annual housing figure and the borough-by-borough split of the 558,000 homes; the 16 July release gives the total to 2037 only, and the draft plan itself could not be consulted for this story.
  2. Which boroughs make up the "over a third" that would move to a 35 per cent affordable housing threshold from 2028; the draft plan itself could not be consulted for this story.
  3. Whether the GLA plans further consultation events between 24 September and the 15 October deadline; its events calendar lists none.

Neighbourhoods & Culture

Southwark's £6.09m leisure heating contracts rest on a strategy with no logged decision

  1. The total budget for the five-centre leisure decarbonisation programme and whether it draws on grant funding: the capital programme annex to the 2025-26 outturn report and the climate budgeting appendix to the 2026-27 budget report were checked, and the gateway reports could not be consulted for this story.
  2. How long each pool and gym will shut while the heating is replaced, and on what dates; neither the decision records nor the council's leisure pages give a works programme.
  3. What the Marine Management Organisation application at Surrey Docks Fitness and Watersports Centre covers, and when it is due to be determined.

Housing & Planning

Lambeth orders compulsory purchase at Clapham Park, part of a 2,532-home rebuild

  1. How many homes and how many leasehold and freehold interests the Site C03 order covers, and what Lambeth expects to pay in compensation; the schedule of interests and the indemnity agreement could not be consulted for this story.
  2. How the 2,532 homes in the 2019 permission divide by tenure, and how many are for social rent; the GLA planning datahub record returns an affordable figure of 46.13% but only a partial unit-level breakdown.
  3. What the timeline in Appendix 6, titled "28 Plummer Road - Final CPO Timeline", refers to; Lambeth's officer decision registers for 2020 to 2024 carry no earlier Clapham Park compulsory purchase order, and the Cabinet decisions filter on the council's committee site returns no results for any date range.

Boroughs

Southwark awards £908,717 Surrey Docks heat contract, third in £6.1m programme

  1. What Southwark's Gateway 1 decision approved for leisure decarbonisation and at what value: the issue notice published on 2 March 2026 gives no figure, and the council's decisions register for 1 March to 31 July 2026, listing 54 decisions, contains no Gateway 1 leisure decarbonisation decision.
  2. Which budget funds the £6,087,235: no decision record names a source, and the General Fund capital programme annex to the Executive's 2025-26 out-turn capital monitoring report of 20 July 2026 could not be consulted for this story.
  3. Why the Surrey Docks award and the August professional services decision each required a general exception notice, when the council had published its notice of intention on Surrey Docks on 2 March 2026 for a decision due in August.

City Hall

TfL approves 15-vehicle supervised robocab trial after Assembly poll finds 42% opposed

  1. The number of licensed private hire vehicles and drivers in London, against which the 15 trial vehicles could be measured: TfL's licensing page and its taxi and private hire publications page carry no totals, and the Department for Transport's taxi and private hire vehicle statistics for England could not be consulted for this story.
  2. The terms of TfL's consent — its geographic limits, safeguarding conditions and reporting requirements — which TfL has not published and which the committee's statement does not set out.
  3. Whether TfL saw the committee's June polling before it gave consent, and what weight public opinion carried in its assessment as a consenting authority.

Transport

Two Croydon tram sections stay shut as engineering runs to 30 August

  1. How many passenger journeys the closed sections normally carry; TfL's tram pages publish no ridership figures, and the Travel in London 2025 demand report was not available to consult.
  2. What the engineering work between Reeves Corner and East Croydon consists of and what it costs; TfL names no project for three weeks of closure on any published page.
  3. Whether any replacement bus runs for either closure; the status page lists no replacement service and no ticket acceptance on other operators.