Government doesn't know how much HS2 will cost or when it will be running
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The government has admitted it does not know how much HS2 will ultimately cost - or when high speed trains will be running on the beleaguered rail project. Dame Bernadette Kelly, the top civil servant at the Department for Transport (DfT), told MPs the official estimates of £54bn-£66bn for the London to Birmingham leg are not reliable.
Politics Live: 'Showboating' expected as Starmer faces 'super committee'. That amount, quoted by HS2 Ltd at a board meeting as recently as June, is based on 2019 prices and does not account for inflation. Dame Bernadette said the department did not "regard it as a reliable and agreed cost estimate".
"I say with great regret... that is the situation," she told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday. She said coming up with an agreed cost estimate would be "extremely complex" and would not be done until "well into 2025". When accounted for inflation, £66bn in today's prices is around £83bn.
Follow our channel and never miss an update. Also present at the committee, the new chief executive of HS2 Ltd admitted the company had "failed" to keep costs down because of three "systemic" and "enduring" problems. Mark Wild said construction started "way too early", risks had not been managed properly and "productivity assumptions at the beginning have not come to pass".
