'We are a laughing stock' - Minister's astonishing admission as HS2 line to Birmingham set to be late and way over budget
The UK has been turned into an international “laughing stock” over the failure to control the HS2 rail project to Birmingham, a minister acknowledged.
Housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook said there were “serious problems” with HS2 “in terms of accountability, project overruns, costs”.
He said the way HS2, which is linking London Euston with Birmingham, had been handled “reflect very poorly on us” as a country.
He said the Planning and Infrastructure Bill includes a number of changes that will “speed up the consenting process for nationally significant infrastructure” and this week’s infrastructure strategy “seeks to reverse the frankly erratic decisions and underinvestment we’ve seen over the past 14 years”.
“So we do need to learn the lessons, take a different approach, ensure that we’re getting infrastructure investment going in, certainty and stability about investment and getting to grip with project timelines and costs.
“Because I think, frankly, when it comes to HS2, in some ways, we’re a bit of a laughing stock around the world in terms of how we handle infrastructure. As a Government, we’re absolutely determined to turn that around.”
Lord Tony Berkeley branded the HS2 rail project “chaos” as he insisted it should be stopped.
The Labour peer, who served as deputy chairman of a government review into HS2, said: “It’s chaos, and we haven’t been told anything about it.
“Rishi Sunak, after all, cancelled it 18 months ago. That was the previous government but everybody in HS2 seems to have ignored it and the Government’s ignored it by continuing to pour money down it when they should have stopped 18 months ago and they should still stop today.
“They’ve wasted billions already.
“I think that the first thing to do is to stop digging when you don’t know what you’re doing and where it’s going to end up, and I would put HS2 into administration. Let the administrators sort it out and then take a clear, simple look at what they want to achieve and get it done in a much more cost effective way.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is set to tell the Commons today that she is drawing a “line in the sand” over the beleaguered rail project.
Ministers plan to learn from the mistakes of HS2 so that they do a better job when it comes to projects like Northern Powerhouse Rail and the Lower Thames Crossing, it is understood.
“HS2 has made Britain a laughing stock in terms of its ability to deliver big infrastructure projects, and it has to end. This will set out the way we will do that,” a Government source told the PA news agency.
The result of two reviews into HS2 are expected to be announced alongside the Transport Secretary’s statement.
The first of these is an interim report by Mark Wild, the chief executive of HS2, who was appointed late last year.
He will assess the construction of the project’s first phase from London to Birmingham.
A second, wider review into the governance and accountability of HS2, led by James Stewart, will also report back.
This is expected to set out what has gone wrong with the project, and what ministers can learn for future infrastructure projects.
As she addresses MPs, the Transport Secretary is expected to address allegations of fraud by contractors to HS2 which have emerged recently.
Earlier this week, it emerged HS2 Ltd reported a sub-contractor working on the rail line to HMRC following an internal probe.
During the statement, Ms Alexander is also set to announce a new chair of HS2.
The current chair, Sir Jon Thompson, previously announced he would stand down in the spring of this year.
His replacement will be Mike Brown, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Mr Brown is the former commissioner for Transport for London, who helped to oversee the deliver of Crossrail, the transport project which became London’s Elizabeth Line.
HS2 was originally due to run between London and Birmingham, then onto Manchester and Leeds, but the project was severely curtailed by the Conservatives in power due to spiralling costs.
Concerns about the costs of the stunted project have persisted, with £100 million spent on a bat tunnel aimed at mitigating the railway’s environmental impact singled out by Sir Keir Starmer for criticism.
