The government has refused to commit to building the rail line in full

Britain’s major high speed rail project is facing ballooning costs according to analysis from the Financial Times. The newspaper has calculated that the price tag on the major infrastructure project could rise by more than £20 billion.

The FT has calculated that the cost of the project – previously projected as £70 billion – could rise to a staggering £91 billion as a result of inflation.

Increasing costs will raise further questions about the future of the scheme beyond the London to Birmingham leg which has already begun construction. Plans remain in place for HS2 to be built on to Manchester, but the government has recently refused to guarantee this will happen.

According to a report in the Independent, prime minister Rishi Sunak and chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt are in discussions about ditching the second stage of the project. The Times has reported senior government sources saying that Sunak has already made up his mind that the Manchester leg will be abandoned.

It is estimated that ditching the Birmingham to Manchester leg could save up to £34 billion.

The Labour Party has historically supported the plans to build the second leg of HS2. However, the party’s national campaign coordinator Pat McFadden recently refused to make a commitment about the project’s future.

Prevarication on whether HS2’s Manchester leg will go ahead has been criticised by politicians in the north of England. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has said: “If the briefings are to believed … the south-east linking up to the Midlands with high-speed trains, while the north struggles on with Victorian infrastructure, nothing would illustrate the inequality clearer than that.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: Les Chatfield – Creative Commons

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