Renewed calls for Wales to receive billions in HS2 consequential funding

Mark Mansfield

Fresh calls have been made for Wales to receive billions of pounds in HS2 consequential funding after the UK Government admitted the delayed rail project could now cost more than £100 billion and may not fully open until the 2040s.

The renewed pressure came after Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs the high-speed rail scheme had suffered an “obscene increase in time and costs”, blaming “the failures of successive Conservative governments”.

Responding to the statement, Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster spokesperson David Chadwick said Wales could no longer be denied funding linked to the project.

“HS2 has become a textbook example of Government mismanagement,” he said.

“After years of delays, spiralling costs and broken promises under the previous Conservative Government, taxpayers across the UK are now being left to pick up the bill.”

He added: “At the very least, Wales must now receive the consequential funding it is owed so we can invest in desperately needed transport infrastructure here at home.”

Mr Chadwick accused the Labour Government of using “accounting tricks” to avoid providing Wales with the same treatment as Scotland and Northern Ireland under the Barnett formula.

“There is simply no justification for Wales continuing to be short-changed,” he said.

Calls for Wales to receive HS2 consequentials have also previously been made by Welsh Labour politicians, Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservatives.

The previous Labour Welsh Government also argued that HS2 should be redesignated as an England-only infrastructure project rather than one benefiting both England and Wales, which would trigger additional funding for Wales.

The project was classified as a Wales-and-England scheme in 2015 under David Cameron’s Conservative government despite no part of the railway crossing into Wales.

As a result, Scotland and Northern Ireland have received Barnett consequentials linked to HS2 spending while Wales has not.

Plaid Cymru has argued Wales is owed around £4 billion based on the projected overall cost of the scheme, while the previous Welsh Government previously cited a figure closer to £400 million based on spending to date.

In March last year, the Senedd rejected Plaid Cymru calls to formally demand that HS2 be redesignated as an England-only project.

Senedd members voted 42-12 against the Plaid motion following a debate on March 12.

Despite that vote, pressure over the issue has continued across party lines in Wales as the overall cost of HS2 has continued to rise.

Costs

Speaking in the Commons, Ms Alexander said the estimated total cost of HS2 now stood between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion in 2025 prices.

The revised timetable means services between west London and Birmingham are not expected to begin operating until between 2036 and 2039, around a decade later than originally planned.

The section linking central London’s Euston station with Handsacre Junction in Staffordshire may not open until between 2040 and 2043.

The project was originally estimated to cost £32.7 billion when plans were first announced in 2011.

In response to Ms Alexander’s update Plaid Cymru’s Transport Spokesperson, Ann Davies MP, said that HS2 has been “shambolic from the outset”.

Ann Davies said: “People are right to be angry at the severe lack of leadership and planning that has led us to this point – from repeated delays and scaling back of plans to its spiralling costs. The UK Government’s statement today is an admission that it has failed to get to grips with the failures inherited from the previous Conservative Government since taking office in 2024.

“But in Wales, we have an additional reason to be angry. HS2, a rail line connecting London and Birmingham, continues to be wrongly classified as an ‘England and Wales’ project.

“The railway is nowhere near Wales and will bring no meaningful benefit to our communities, yet people in Wales are still expected to help pay for it.

“Wales is already owed around £4 billion as a result of HS2 being misclassified, but if the project’s costs rise beyond £100 billion as expected, the scale of that injustice will only grow.

“Every increase in HS2 spending further skews transport funding away from Wales, reducing the share we receive across the wider UK Transport Department budget and baking the underfunding of Welsh rail infrastructure into future spending decisions.”

She added that she will meet with Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Transport, Keir Mather, this afternoon to push for the “funding and powers that Wales is owed”.

Slower speeds

Ms Alexander also confirmed that trains would operate at slower speeds than originally planned to reduce costs, with the maximum speed cut from 224mph to 199mph.

She described earlier plans as a “massively over-specced folly” driven by Conservative ministers seeking the world’s fastest trains.

A review published alongside the announcement criticised “gold plating” within the project and identified serious failures in planning, cost estimation and oversight.

The Government also confirmed ministers had examined whether cancelling HS2 altogether would offer better value for money, but concluded scrapping the scheme would cost at least as much as completing it after around £40 billion had already been spent.