HS2: Can it be pulled back from the brink?
For anyone who has followed the debacle surrounding HS2, the transport secretary’s scathing verdict on Wednesday will come as no surprise.
The “appalling mess” of HS2, as Heidi Alexander put it, means there is “no route” to delivering the scheme on time and on budget.
Shock. HS2’s costs were already known to have exceeded more than £100bn and a fresh delay beyond 2033 is just the latest in a number of adjustments to its schedule.
The “litany of failures” which brought the project to this point are too many to name in one go. They stretch from gross mismanagement by executives and politicians to one-sided contracts and even outright fraud.
Two damning reports released on the same day reached identical conclusions; the current position of HS2 is “unacceptable” and only a full reset can salvage any kind of benefit from the scheme.
But is this even possible? Former KPMG chair James Stewart’s review said poor-value contracts negotiated between HS2 Ltd and its suppliers were “by far” the most significant contributors to the overall cost increases.
This comes just a few months after the outgoing chief executive of one of the project’s largest contractors, Balfour Beatty, poured cold water on suggestions any of the deals could be re-negotiated.
Euston, the high-speed line’s terminus, is also no closer to a final plan despite the wildly optimistic claims of successive governments.
Fraud allegations must be investigated
Most now agree the damage has already been done. Construction commenced too soon and without a proper plan, while cost and schedule estimates were “optimistic” from the get-go, according to Mark Wild, the new chief executive with the unenviable job of turning things around.
Buried in Wild’s letter to the transport secretary is also the telling admission he is considering reducing the speed of the high-speed line’s trains to “allow for more certainty around cost.”
How much difference will that make? Whistleblowers have for years alleged a fraud and cover-up took place and that cost forecasts were played down from the start, making the current mess inevitable.
In a signal the government is starting to take these claims more seriously, Alexander told the Commons allegations of fraud in parts of the supply chain “need to be investigated rapidly and vigorously,” adding: “If fraud is proven, the consequences will be felt by all involved.”
Holding those responsible to account will satisfy some, but it won’t solve the project’s issues.
And it certainly won’t placate public outcry, which has reached such a point that politicians across parties, including Nigel Farage, Greg Smith and the Labour peer Lord Berkeley, called on Wednesday for HS2 to be scrapped in its entirety.
“We will reset our relationship with government to establish alignment and enable successful delivery,” Wild wrote.