TaxPayers' Alliance proved right on true costs of HS2

For Immediate Release

Today the TaxPayers' Alliance has welcomed the announcement by Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, that the true cost of High Speed 2 (HS2) will be £81-88 billion in 2019 prices. Previous governments have maintained that HS2 would only cost £55.6 billion despite knowing the project was likely to exceed this.

In February 2017 the TPA published research estimating the cost of HS2 at £90.8 billion. This year we launched the Great British Transport Competition that identified 28 alternative transport infrastructure projects that offer better value for money than HS2.

In light of the new figure of £81-88 billion, the government was right to call for an independent review into the project. To prevent wasting more taxpayers' money HS2 should be scrapped as soon as possible. 

Commenting on the announcement, Harry Fone, Grassroots Campaign Manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:

"This is a welcome case of government coming clean with taxpayers about the true costs of the hated HS2.

"The problems facing the project are an open secret, with massive overruns and official estimates drifting ever upwards, towards our original estimate of around £90 billion. Overpaid middle management have been unable to keep costs under control, and a bloated PR budget has not helped HS2 Ltd cover their tracks.

"As sceptics have suspected all along, HS2 is dangerously close to coming off the rails. The recent review must now ask difficult questions about whether to throw good money after bad and press ahead or not."