Construction industry ‘not in a fit state’ to deliver HS2, says official review author

By Joey Gardiner2025-06-19T12:23:00

James Stewart tells Building government needs to ‘proactively’ build capacity in the sector to avoid repeat of HS2 failures

The man behind a damning review of the failure of government to manage the rising cost of the HS2 build programme has called for a wholesale “regeneration” of the construction sector to deliver major projects.

James Stewart, former chief executive of New Labour PFI quango Partnerships UK and now chair of infrastructure consultant Agilia, told Building the construction industry was “not in a fit state” to deliver a project of the scale of HS2.

Stewart, whose report on HS2 was published yesterday as the government revealed another two-year delay to the troubled mega project’s build-programme, called on the government to take a “pro-active role” in building up industry capacity, arguing that the approach of the previous administration had not worked.

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