Rishi Sunak ‘alarmed’ by spiralling cost of HS2 as he faces Cabinet split
Rishi Sunak is reportedly alarmed by the runaway cost of HS2 as he faces a Cabinet split over the potential axing of the rail project’s northern leg.
A growing number of senior Tories have warned the Prime Minister against the cancellation of HS2’s Birmingham to Manchester route.
Mr Sunak, who on Monday did nothing to quell fears he is preparing to either scrap or delay the leg, has told allies he is not prepared to watch the cost continue to rise, the Times reported.
The newspaper said he is concerned about a lack of cost controls and high salaries at the company overseeing the project after he was shown figures suggesting the overall price could top £100 billion.
Mr Sunak is also said to be considering terminating the line in a west London suburb rather than in Euston as planned to save money.
Tory former chancellor George Osborne and ex-Conservative deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine were among grandees warning that scrapping the Manchester route would be a “gross act of vandalism” which would mean “abandoning” the North and Midlands.
White elephant
Another ex-chancellor, Lord Hammond, told The Times the project risked becoming a white elephant if it was not finished, while former transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said that scaling it back would be “completely wrong”.
Some Cabinet ministers are also thought to be opposed, with The Independent citing a source close to government discussions on HS2 as describing Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and Transport Secretary Mark Harper as unhappy about the move.
A spokesperson for Mr Harper said the claim was “completely untrue”.
The Prime Minister is reportedly expected to delay a decision until after the Tory conference, being held in Manchester from Sunday.
He could announce a string of regional transport improvements in an effort to limit the political fallout over the future of HS2, including bringing forward Northern Powerhouse Rail between Manchester and Leeds, the Times and the Guardian reported.
Funding for a new underground rail station in Manchester could also be part of the package, according to the Times.
Downing Street said there is precedent to delaying aspects of the high-speed rail scheme because of “affordability pressures”, pointing towards high inflation.
Grant Shapps, recently promoted to Defence Secretary from his transport role, has said it would be “crazy” not to reconsider the project in considering spiralling costs.
Lord Tony Berkeley, a Labour peer who served as deputy chair of a government review into HS2, told BBC Newsnight he thought the full cost of HS2 is “nearer £180 billion”.
But Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, demanded Mr Sunak does not curtail the project and argued it would be a “decision of epic proportions for our part of the world”.
The new US owners of Birmingham City football club joined a chorus of political and business criticism, warning that limiting HS2 would damage confidence in Government promises to deliver long-term plans.
The club’s chairman Tom Wagner wrote to the Prime Minister to warn that the move would hurt Birmingham’s economy and result in a “loss of investor trust”, according to the Financial Times.
Mr Sunak on Monday insisted he is “absolutely committed to levelling up”, as he refused to give any details over HS2’s future during a visit to a community centre in Hertfordshire.
He said that transport is “key” to that vision, “not just big rail projects, but also local projects, improving local bus services, fixing pot holes”.
Pressed yes or no whether it will go ahead, Mr Sunak insisted: “This kind of speculation that people are making is not right. We’ve got spades in the ground, we’re getting on and delivering.”
In October, the Government’s assessment of the cost for the Manchester leg was up to £71 billion.
Ministers said in June that £22.5 billion had been spent so far on the first leg to Birmingham, while around £2.3 billion had been spent on subsequent legs, with expenditure going towards labour as well as land.
All those figures were based on 2019 prices, so will have soared thanks to inflation alone, as the costs of materials and wages rose.
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When Sunak says he is ‘absolutely committed to’, he’s about to destroy something. Last week, net zero. This week, HS2. Oddly, the Tory conference is in Manchester, the very place they are cutting out of the rail deal but I’m sure we’ll hear plenty from him there about how he’s absolutely committed to total non governance for anyone, just removing their coins & notes.
So there will be a high speed rail line from Curzon Street to Old Oak Common, sure there will be surging crowds wanting to do that journey. In the meantime investment in established routes, such a Cardiff-Swansea electrification was sacrificed to pay for this. What Manchester needs is a unblocking of the line around Piccadilly and Oxford Rd.
The UK looking more and more like a failing state with no capacity for major investment or change.
Legacy of opting for vanity projects rather than addressing real needs. Having pee’d a fortune down this drain along with other gigantic wastes such as test and trace, dud PPE kit, Trident, multiple palace refurbs….. one has to ask how many of these god awful decisions is the electorate prepared to forgive? It seems that a large slice of UK’s voting electorate ( the ones that actually bother) must be totally hypnotised by the antics of this mob of deviants.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies claim HS2 will be a complete waste of money…
A column of white elephants trunk to tail from Old Oak Common to Infinity…
The history of High Speed 2 echo’s the history of the Second Elizabethan Age…
There must be thousands of compensation claims waiting in a siding somewhere…
Someone tell Rishi Ji we are alarmed at the thought of Bully XL Braverman representing us at the UN, not in our name you nutter…
After phase 1 is completed Manchester will be 1 hr 30 ins from London. phase 1 take the Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester trains off the WCML giving more capacity.
Why are they all whingeing?
Roll back Rishi is alarmed by MANY of the consequences of his own actions. The primary purpose of HS2 was to quickly move GOODS between the north and south, between ports. So now we will have spent billions to leave the job unfinished and goods transportation exactly where they were before the start of the scheme. Meantime, most of the major construction companies are losing loads of staff, as are the tens of thousands of companies in their supply chains and the hundreds of thousands of people who work for them. This scheme has been a massive economic driver, ensuring… Read more »