CorporateWatch has an article, Transport for London seeks new powers with developers, reporting that "Transport for London (TfL) is currently seeking to team up with private sector partners to give it new powers, especially regarding land development, putting public land and affordable housing at risk, as well as creating more financial risk for TfL itself."
The article places this move in the context of the Public-Private Partnership, and writees: "The PPP is a story of private companies sucking huge quantities of money out of the Tube while failing to deliver their promises to adequately maintain and improve the system. This has been documented in detail by Janine Booth in her book Plundering London Underground which outlines the history of public and private ownership of London Underground over the last century and a half."