Completing the controversial High-Speed 2 (HS2) rail link from London to the North of England could cost up to £106 billion, according to a leaked government-commissioned review.
The Financial Times has reportedly seen the unpublished report, which says there is “considerable risk” that the estimated cost of the major infrastructure project could rise by another 20 per cent.
In 2015, it was estimated HS2 would cost £55.7 billion, but that was later updated to £62.4 billion at 2019 prices. However, new chairman Allan Cook wrote to the government last year saying the high-speed railway could need funding of up to £88 billion and would also be delayed by up to five years.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps launched a review into the project shortly after he was appointed by prime minister Boris Johnson, whose constituency stands to be impacted by construction on the new rail line. He hired former HS2 chairman Douglas Oakervee to lead the review, with Lord Berkeley chosen as deputy chair.
However, Lord Berkeley’s involvement was cut short at the end of 2019, with the Labour peer saying he was not given the opportunity to influence the conclusion to be presented in the report. He instead released his own paper suggesting HS2 is “the wrong and expensive solution” for the UK, warning the cost could reach as high as £115.8 billion by some estimates.
According to the Financial Times, the official report also recommends pausing the second phase of the project connecting the line to Manchester and Leeds while experts consider whether conventional railways could be a better solution for the North.
That conclusion would prove unpopular among northern constituencies, which have been calling for improvements to northern links for decades.
Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, told the BBC’s Today programme that a delay or downgrading of the northern section of HS2 would “not be acceptable”. He added: “To me that would be the same old story. London to Birmingham, money is no object, and then all the penny pinching is done in the North of England.”
He also pointed out that the Northern Powerhouse Rail project – also known as HS3 – depends on HS2 being completed.
Shapps said on Friday that the government would be making a decision on whether to go ahead with the project “very soon”, though he initially promised a verdict by the end of 2019.
Johnson himself has sent mixed signals on his view of the project, at once saying he would “hesitate before simply scrapping something… of great national importance” but that the government “will want to be checking the money is being properly spent and there aren’t ways in which it could be reprioritised or reprofiled”.