HS2 downgrade has cost UK taxpayers more than £2 billion
30 July 2024
The decision by former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’ to scrap the second phase of the UK’s controversial HS2 high speed rail line cost the country more than £2 billion (US$2.6 billion) a new report shows.
In its annual report published on Monday, the UK’s largest infrastructure project revealed that Sunak’s decision to cancel the second leg of the rail line which would run north of Birmingham included £2.17 billion (US$2.8 billion) of one-off costs associated with cutting back the railway.
An artist’s impression of an HS2 train. Image: HS2
HS2, the independent body responsible for delivering the project, said that it had written off £1.1 billion (US$1.4 billion) in costs incurred during phase two, which include impairments for remediation, reinstatement and the costs associated with exiting the phase.
The company also calculated a further £1 billion (US$1.3 billion) of write downs due to impairments of assets resulting from the change in scope of the project which will reduce its income in future.
Original plans for the high-speed line would have allowed trains to run at up to 225 miles per hour between London, Manchester and Leeds.
However, in October 2023, after lengthy delays and cost overruns, Sunak announced that the line will now run between Birmingham and Old Oak Common in west London and eventually be extended to Euston station.
HS2 said £8.6 billion of taxpayers’ money had been spent on it in the year to the end of March, compared with £6.9 billion the previous year.
Last week a report by the UK government’s National Audit Office estimated that plans to extend the line to Euston station in central London would take several years.
“There have been considerable changes to the scope of HS2 in the past year, which have in turn triggered changes to the way HS2 is run, operated and governed. The government’s decision in October 2023 to chance Phase Two of HS2 and deliver a new station at London Euston through private finance has had a big impact on our activities, “said Sir John Thompson, executive chair of HS2, in the report.
“Like all long-term infrastructure projects, we’ve been affected by economic conditions with inflation, instability in the global supply chain and the changes to HS2’s scope making delivery increasingly challenging.”
