I’m worth it, says HS2 boss on £750,000 a year
THE boss of the controversial new high speed railway defended his huge £750,000 salary by saying he would provide ‘value to the taxpayers’.
HS2 chief executive Simon Kirby said he was worth his wage packet – five times as much as the Prime Minister – because he would deliver the project on time and on budget.
The first phase of HS2, from London to Birmingham, is set to begin in 2017 with an opening date in 2026, while completion of the entire network to Manchester and Leeds is expected in 2033. The Department for Transport estimated it will cost £43 billion but a study by the Institute of Economic Affairs suggested a figure of £80 billion.
Mr Kirby’s enormous salary makes him by far the highest-paid British public servant. In all, there are 26 people at HS2 Ltd earning more than £100,000; and 18 taking home more than David Cameron’s salary of just over £149,000. Mr Kirby told BBC Radio that his salary and that of others on his team was linked to the ‘complexity of this programme’. He said: ‘We’re recruiting people from all over the world to create the most capable team to deliver a programme of this scale. This is the biggest infrastructure project in Europe.
‘For my role there was an open competition. Others decided I was the person to do this role and others will decide my performance in this role. That’s for others to judge, to be frank. It’s about recruiting the best people we can from around the world to deliver this programme on time, on budget and deliver value to the taxpayers.’
Dia Chakravarty, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be absolutely furious. Report after report have demolished the business case for this ludicrously expensive project and yet we continue to pay outrageous salaries to those running it.’