ALL ABOARDTHE HS2 GRAVYTRAIN
Thousands spent on talking shops for panel of design experts Top architect is paid £3,500 every month to chair meetings Fury at ‘elite who would get a nosebleed north of Watford Gap’
THOUSANDS of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent on a new panel of design consultants to advise on the controversial HS2 rail project, sparking fury from critics.
Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate galleries, is the highest-profile member of the 46-strong Independent Design Panel who will be paid £200 each to attend monthly meetings about the £42.6billion scheme.
The group, announced last week, also includes ‘customer experience’ experts from Barclays, and a ‘spatial and cultural strategist’.
And although the panel contains architects and designers, HS2 admits that they won’t actually design anything but just review and make suggestions for the project.
Meetings will be held at least once or twice a month. In most cases up to six members will attend, and be paid a ‘half-day rate’ of £200 each.
The design panel budget is £57,000 a year, and members are likely to be in place until the end of Phase 2 – the link between Birmingham and Leeds and Manchester – in 2033.
Sadie Morgan, a leading architect who is chairing the panel, insisted the level of expertise represented ‘great value for money’. HS2 Ltd confirmed that she is on a £590 day rate for working six days a month. Her contract was announced in March this year.
Based on these figures, she has been paid £31,860 already – or the equivalent of £3,540 a month.
Ms Morgan said: ‘This is the creme de la creme of the design and creative industry who are working, frankly, for a very small amount of money compared to what they would normally get paid.’
But angry HS2 opponents criticised the panel as a bloated collection of ‘the Metropolitan elite’. Joe Rukin, of Stop HS2, said: ‘It is chucking money at a bunch of people who will sit around navel-gazing and do nothing worthwhile whatsoever. It is a Metropolitan elite.
‘It is full of people who would get a nosebleed if they passed the Watford Gap. They have no empathy or knowledge of the locations it is going through.’
And Rory Olcayto, editor of the Architects Journal, added: ‘The idea is that given the sheer scale of the project, hit squads will be able to tackle specific matters as they arise. But shouldn’t those be attended to by the actual design and delivery teams responsible for them?’ In recruitment adverts for the panel, HS2 Ltd said that it was looking for ‘thinkers’, ‘philosophers’ and ‘champions’.
Panel members boast surprising experience for a major construction project. Daisy Froud is a trained architect who describes herself as a ‘spatial and cultural strategist’; Clive Grinyer works for Barclays as ‘customer experience director’; Reuben Arnold is senior vice-president of marketing and customer experience at Virgin Atlantic; and Lucy Musgrave is a design consultant who is described as ‘a leading practitioner in the fields of urbanism and the public realm’.
Another panel member, Greg Nugent, was chief marketing officer for the London Olympics.
HS2’s chief executive, Simon Kirby, who is paid £750,000 a year, said: ‘It’s a mark of HS2’s significance that it’s attracted such a wealth of talent.’
The Government budget for HS2, which will link London, Birmingham Manchester and Leeds, is £42.6million. However, a recent report said the final cost could be £80billion.
When completed, journey times between London and Birmingham should fall from one hour 21 minutes to 49 minutes, and Birmingham to Manchester times will be reduced from the current one hour 28 minutes to 51 minutes.