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Britain’s transport secretary will on Wednesday admit that the High Speed 2 rail line faces new cost overruns and its completion will be further delayed by years as she seeks to blame the previous Conservative government for mismanagement.
Heidi Alexander will tell MPs that the last administration overspent on the controversial railway line by signing contracts when advised not to and spending £2bn on a northern leg of the project that it then cancelled.
She will also cite allegations that “parts of the supply chain have been defrauding taxpayers”, which would be investigated as swiftly as possible. HS2 has previously admitted that it has begun an investigation into claims that one of its suppliers had charged overinflated rates for workers.
“Billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money have been wasted by constant scope changes, ineffective contracts and bad management,” Alexander will say. “It’s an appalling mess. But it’s one we will sort out.”
The original price tag for the scheme was £30bn in 2010 for a line that would have connected London, Manchester and Leeds and was supposed to open by 2026.
The Financial Times revealed in December that the latest estimate was £80bn — in 2024 prices — for a much-reduced project that will only run to Birmingham. The most recent estimate for completion was 2033 but that is now expected to slip into the mid or late 2030s.
On Wednesday, Alexander will announce the findings of a review of the scheme by Mark Wild, chief executive of HS2 Ltd.
Wild has concluded that the project cannot be achieved on its latest timetable or its existing budget, although he has not yet given a new estimate on the price tag, according to officials.
HS2 was originally envisaged before 2010 by the then Labour government. In 2021 then Tory prime minister Boris Johnson axed the link to Leeds amid spiralling costs and delays. Two years later his successor Rishi Sunak made the decision to cancel the line to Manchester.
Alexander will tell MPs that the Johnson administration was advised in 2020 by the Oakervee review to renegotiate key contracts and hold off signing further ones — but the contracts continued to be signed.
She will also claim that Tory ministers commissioned two sets of designs for a Euston station — costing £250mn — that were both dropped.
The minister will also claim that a “Euston ministerial task force” set up by Sunak did not hold any meetings.
Alexander will announce that she has appointed Mike Brown, former commissioner of Transport for London, as the new chair of HS2 Ltd, replacing Jon Thompson.
She will also announce the result of a separate review into the scheme by James Stewart, a former chair of infrastructure advisory at KPMG, into what wider lessons can be learnt from the HS2 debacle.
Stewart’s report identified a “deficit in capability and skills, with a fundamental lack of trust” between HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport.
His report will lay out 89 recommendations, including that HS2 should change its contracts to ensure providers deliver on time and under budget. “Lessons learnt will end the era of Britain as a laughing stock on delivering big infrastructure projects,” said one Labour aide.
Alexander will also set out measures to enhance “oversight and accountability” on the project.
The government will set out further details of how to proceed with the Euston interchange — which connects HS2 to London’s transport network — in its 10-year Infrastructure Strategy that is expected on Thursday. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the autumn Budget that she would fund the necessary tunnelling work.
Alexander will promise to update parliament on the future progress of HS2 in six-monthly reports.
