(BUTTON)

   Property puzzle: the cost of buying land and buildings along the HS2
   route is still not known ( HS2/PA )

Costs of HS2 'vastly underestimated', whistleblower says

   ‘I’m not worried about overspending, I’m confident we’ve got a budget
   we can stand by,’ said HS2’s chief executive
     * Simon Calder Travel Correspondent
     * Monday 17 December 2018 19:39 {{^moreThanTen}}
--
     *

   The cost of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, intended to increase
   capacity between London, the Midlands and the north of England, is
   under fresh scrutiny.

   In a BBC Panorama programme, a former HS2 executive has claimed that
   early estimates of the value of properties along the route that needed
   to be bought were “enormously wrong”.

   Doug Thornton, former land and property director, said the figures
   underestimated the amount HS2 would have to pay, and that “thousands”
   more properties had not been budgeted for at all.

--

   Mr Thornton said he was “appalled” at the “loose and slapdash fashion”
   that numbers were used. He said he walked out of HS2 “one Wednesday
   evening and breathed a sigh of relief” in 2015.

--
Read more

     * Sir Terry Morgan resigns as chairman of HS2 and Crossrail

   The first stage of HS2, which is the biggest civil engineering project
   in Europe, requires 27 square miles of property to be purchased.

   According to a recent National Audit Office report, the HS2 estimate of
   the net cost to acquire land and property for Stage One was £1.12bn in
   2011 prices, but by 2017 it had risen to £3.3bn in 2015 prices.

   The report concluded: “HS2 Ltd’s current estimate is within its agreed
   funding envelope from HM Treasury and provides a reasonable basis from
   which it can monitor the potential cost to compensate property owners
   and tenants affected by the construction of the railway.”

   HS2’s chief executive, Mark Thurston, told Panorama: “I’m not worried
   about overspending, I’m confident we’ve got a budget we can stand by.”

   Earlier this month Sir Terry Morgan, who was chairman of both HS2 and
   the troubled Crossrail project, resigned. He warned of possible cost
   issues ahead for HS2, talking of the “challenge inside the project” to
   stay on time and on budget.
   Proposed route for the HS2 high speed rail scheme

   The first stage of the line, from London Euston to Birmingham Curzon
--

   In response the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said: “I’m very
   clear on HS2 – it’s got a budget, it’s got to live with that budget.”
   More about
   HS2 |  railways |  Chris Grayling |
   Show{{#moreThan3_total}} {{value_total}} {{/moreThan3_total}} comments