MPs have issued a damning report about the failures of the HS2 rail programme, saying the Department for Transport (DfT) does not have “the right skills and capabilities” to effectively lead the project.
HS2 has been beset by a string of failures and budget overruns over the last decade, including the cancellation of routes ending in Leeds and Manchester by the previous Conservative government.
An HS2 board paper released in June 2024 anticipated that the project was now expected to cost between £54bn and £66bn in 2019 prices – a marked increase from estimates the previous November of £49bn to £57bn.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published its report updating its long-running scrutiny of the project, following the cancellation of HS2’s Northern leg. It said the level of failure seen by the project had been great enough to present “a reputational risk to the UK”.
During the inquiry phase, the DfT told the PAC that the programme would undergo a “fundamental reset”, following a similar...