Six-monthly report sets out costs in nominal terms for first time after years of 2019 prices
A total of £40.5bn has been spent so far to deliver HS2, according to the Department for Transport’s latest update to parliament.
The spiralling cost of the scheme has been the subject of public outcry and scrutiny, complicated by the way in which costs have been quoted by the government.
In previous six-monthly reports, the government has cited figures in 2019 prices, making it difficult to tell how much the project has been impacted by the volatile inflation of recent years.
In its latest statement to parliament, the Department for Transport (DfT) has used nominal prices, which reflects the actual monetary amounts paid at the point of purchase. As well as the headline cost up to April 2025, it also revealed that £2.6bn had been spent on the now abandoned second phase.
To enable comparison, the DfT said the latest figure amounted to £33.1bn in 2019 prices, which is approximately £300m up from the figure released last December.
This week’s statement did not set out an expected cost for the entire project. In December, HS2 put the estimate at between £54bn and £66bn in 2019 prices, however the department said at the time that it did not regard this as a “reliable and agreed cost estimate” and that a new baseline cost may not be established until 2026.
The latest statement revealed the project has forecasted and budgeted for a £7.2bn (nominal) spend in 2025/2026, while last month’s spending review allocated £25.3bn for 2026 to 2030.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander also re-iterated that there was “no route by which trains can be running by 2033 as previously planned” and criticised the historic mismanagement of the scheme.
She said the assessment of Mark Wild, chief executive of HS2 Ltd since last December, was that the delivery company “currently falls far short of having the capability and culture needed to deliver the programme effectively”.
See also: HS2 reports subcontractor to HMRC over alleged tax fraud
Mike Brown recently joined Wild in a restructured leadership as HS2’s new board chair and Alexander said that a recruitment process had been launched to appoint new non-executive directors to strengthen board oversight.
She also confirmed that the government had formally lifted the safeguarding of the eastern leg of the route, which was axed in 2021.
Alexander said this would end “the uncertainty that has affected many people along the former route”, although she stressed that a small area to the south of the existing station in central Leeds would remain safeguarded “to allow for potential enhancements to the existing station, including for onward travel”.
Safeguarding along the former phase 2b leg, between Manchester and Crewe, has not been changed, as some of it may be required to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail.
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