Two-year delay to HS2 will cost taxpayers more than £360million

Planned two-year delay to HS2 construction will cost taxpayers more than £360million – as target cost spirals to £71billion

• Leaked Whitehall analysis show the move will push costs up to £366million

A planned delay to HS2 by ministers will cost taxpayers more than £360million, according to internal estimates.

In March, ministers announced they were delaying by two years the construction of the high-speed section between Birmingham and Crewe in a bid to save money.

But according to leaked analysis carried out by Whitehall officials, the move will push up the cost of Britain’s biggest-ever infrastructure project by £366million, the Financial Times reported.

It is the latest controversy to hit the high-speed rail project, which has been plagued by delays and spiralling costs ever since being announced.

It has been dogged by criticism over its finances. A budget of £55.7billion for the whole project was set in 2015.

A planned delay to HS2 by ministers will cost taxpayers more than £360million, according to internal estimates

According to leaked analysis carried out by Whitehall officials, the move will push up the cost of Britain’s biggest-ever infrastructure project by £366million

But the target cost has ballooned to up to £71billion, excluding the eastern leg which was axed in 2021. 

This would have taken trains from Birmingham to Leeds and pushed the project’s cost to potentially more than £100billion.

The finished line will eventually link London with Birmingham and Manchester.

But the latest delays mean high speed trains won’t reach Manchester until at least 2040.

The Department for Transport said: ‘Large infrastructure projects have to be funded sustainably.

‘Over the next two years, spending will remain within the annual budgets and some stages of the project will be re-phased to ensure they are delivered in the most cost-effective way for taxpayers, as the government set out to Parliament in March.’

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