Final decision on HS2 ‘must be fact based’

TRANSPORT SECRETARY Grant Shapps said whether to go ahead with HS2 “needs to be fact based”.

It comes after the widelyleaked Oakervee Review into the scheme caused uproar as it was suggested the project could cost up to £106bn.

It reportedly found there was “considerable risk” the cost would rise by up to 20 per cent beyond the £81bn to £88bn range set out by current HS2 chairman Allan Cook just four months ago, which was predicted by the Prime Minister during the election.

Mr Shapps said: “I asked Doug Oakervee to do that report and said to him, ‘Give me the facts, give me the data, give us the information so we can make a proper informed decision’.

“I’ve always approached this from a relatively neutral point of view and that information will help to inform a decision that is best for the whole country.”

HIGH-SPEED RAIL links would “be a shot in the arm for businesses and communities” despite spiralling costs and concern over the project’s future, according to Britain’s largest employers’ group.

The Confederation of British Industry’s regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, Beckie Hart, said it was time to “lift our aspirations” and commit to using the HS2 project to unlock the North of England’s economic potential.

Her backing comes amid reports that HS2 could cost up to £106bn, according to a widely leaked Government-commissioned review.

An inquiry led by former HS2 Ltd chairman Doug Oakervee reportedly found there is “considerable risk” that the high-speed rail project’s cost will rise by up to 20 per cent.

A report by current HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook, published just four months ago, set out an estimated cost range of between £81bn and £88bn.

HS2 was allocated £56bn in 2015 and a decision on whether to go ahead with the project will be made in “weeks rather than months”, according to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

But Ms Hart said: “The costs of not building HS2 are far higher in communities that have been left behind – with commuter trains filled to capacity and businesses struggling to grow. HS2 is key to tackling the productivity gap and helping the regions level up.”

It comes as at least two Yorkshire MPs, the newly elected Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford and Shipley MP Philip Davies, are preparing to lobby Prime Minister Boris Johnson next week to scrap the scheme.

Both critics of the project, Mr Stafford said it felt the mood music around the project was changing, with the simple fact that Mr Johnson was meeting a delegation of about 12 MPs next week a clear sign he was open to alternatives.

Mr Stafford said: “It is great the PM, No 10 and the Transport Secretary are actually listening to us. At all levels they are listening to arguments and it’s great we have that step which I think was not necessarily happening before.”

He claimed he felt the changing political tides in Yorkshire following the General Election, where the Tories won nine seats, had contributed to shifting attitudes around HS2, adding: “We’re not against the investment, certainly I want that £106bn, but it’s the right money spent where it’s the right investment.”

But Andrew Sentance, who was part of the panel that wrote the Oakervee Review as well as being a senior economist, said: “It is a total shambles that this HS2 review has not yet been published.”

He added: “The Government has sat on it for three months. We had two and a half months to do the report and the Government has sat on it for three months, which seems to me a bit of travesty. They obviously don’t like the conclusions.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said yesterday that No 10 did not comment on leaks but they were committed to releasing the review.

Mr Sentance said: “Everyone was concerned that the cost was escalating but I came to the view that honestly, if you are going to build a major railway in the middle of the country that serves the Midlands and the North, this is what it is going to cost. This is a big test of the Boris Johnson Government’s commitment to the North of England.

“If they don’t [build HS2] I think it will be an indication they are not committed to the North of England.”

It is a total shambles that this review has not yet been published. Senior economist Andrew Sentance.