Fair Campaign for Crossrail – Crisis Management Case Study

Objective

• To raise awareness amongst Londoners about the problems being faced by the companies impacted
• To increase the pressure on the decision makers at TFL and CrossRail so that they could no longer ignore the issue
• To raise the compensation offers being made to PHA and the other business effected
• To ensure lessons were learnt and that the compulsory purchase process was significantly improved for the future of the CrossRail development

Strategy and Implementation

• We ran a media campaign to ensure awareness of the issue amongst Crossrail and TFL stakeholders and Londoners in general
• Caught the Mayor’s attention by calling on him to step in personally to support London businesses. We mentioned him in press interviews, wrote an open letter to him in a national newspaper, engaged his office in direct conversation, and had a meeting with the Mayor to discuss the issue
• Used the media coverage to open a direct dialogue with both the TFL board and the Directors at Crossrail

Results

• Extensive coverage across London media including the Evening Standard, ITV London Tonight, BBC London and LBC
• A significant increase in compensation offers, from an average of 20% of move costs to a much more satisfactory 80%
• Recommendations from PHA included in a London Assembly Transport Committee report, which advised Crossrail on improvements to make to the CPO process in future