HS2 ‘TO GET GREEN LIGHT’
Javid ‘now backs the £106bn line’
MINISTERS are poised to give the green light to the controversial £ 106billion HS2 rail project after Chancellor Sajid Javid came off the fence to back it.
Boris Johnson will hold a crunch summit today with the Chancellor and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on the future of the troubled project, whose estimated costs have almost trebled.
Downing Street yesterday insisted the final decision on HS2 would not be made at today’s meeting, with the Prime Minister expected to consult the Cabinet next week.
But one Government source predicted that a decision in principle was likely to emerge.
The source said: ‘Look at the cast list – you have the PM, the Chancellor and the Transport Secretary. This is where the decision will be made. There may be some further process to go through before a decision is finalised, but the expectation is this is where it will happen.’ Last night it appeared that opinion was moving in favour of continuing with HS2 after it emerged the Chancellor, who had been sceptical of the soaring cost, had swung behind it.
The Daily Mail understands that Mr Javid will attend today’s meeting ‘with a view to supporting HS2’. He has spent weeks studying the costs alongside potential alternatives and concluded that HS2 remains the best way to spark the ‘infrastructure revolution’ the Government wants to launch.
Mr Javid is said to have returned to first principles and, while accepting that ‘no project should go ahead at any cost’, he believes the alternatives ‘were either unworkable or did not produce the same benefits’.
However, sources stressed that all options were still possible. The Cabinet is deeply split on the issue. Mr Johnson yesterday told MPs the Government was still ‘ looking into whether and how to proceed with HS2’. His chief adviser Dominic Cummings is among ‘ many’ in No 10 said to be opposed to the project.
In the Commons, the Prime Minister said a decision on HS2 would be made ‘very shortly’.
Ministers are reported to have considered scrapping the second part of the scheme, which runs from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds, or using conventional rail, rather than high-speed, to reduce the cost.
But a senior Tory source said it was ‘politically untenable’ for Mr Johnson to go ahead with phase one – from London to Birmingham – while cutting back the second phase to the North.
The insider said: ‘The idea that a Prime Minister who has been elected on a mandate to boost infrastructure in the North is going to just scrap the northern part of a big infrastructure project is a non-starter. It’s just politically untenable.’
Meanwhile Mr Johnson and Mr Javid were last night reported to have demanded all Cabinet ministers draw up cuts of 5 per cent to their departments despite promising an end to austerity.
Ministers have been told to do a line-by-line audit and identify ten projects that can be stopped altogether. Even ‘ protected’ departments such as health and defence are not exempt. Insiders said the Government wants to overhaul or abolish projects and quangos rather than squeeze salaries or cut welfare.
‘Decision in principle today’