HS2 ‘on the verge of passing point of no return’

We’ve spent so much money on HS2 rail that it could be too difficult to scrap it, the head of the public spending watchdog has suggested.

The plan to build new rail tracks between London and Birmingham, later extending to Leeds and Manchester, has been much more expensive than expected.

So far, the main problem has been with buying land to build track, which has cost more money than planned.

The project has already cost so much that we should at least finish the London to Birmingham section, Sir Amyas Morse, the outgoing chief of the National Audit Office (NAO), said.

The country would have to be in ‘a lot of economic trouble’ to pull the plug on the mammoth project, he said.

Some MPs have called for the project, with a £55.7 billion budget, to be cancelled so the cash can be invested in infrastructure projects elsewhere.

Speaking to the BBC’s Westminster Hour, Sir Aymas suggested the first phase would have to be completed due to the cost and work already incurred.

‘There is a point where there’s not much point thinking you can go back. Are we at that point on HS2? It’s difficult for me to say,’ he said.

‘It might be that we still haven’t quite crossed the Rubicon on it, but pretty soon we’ll have sunk so much in buying land, building track and so forth, that it would be very difficult not to at least go to Birmingham.’

The NAO has investigated the project’s acquisition of land on the London to West Midlands section after concerns were raised over how much it was estimated to cost.

The watchdog said estimates of the cost of land and property had ‘increased significantly over time’, although such estimates are inherently hard to get right.

Nevertheless, some MPs have been highly critical of the cost of the project.

Last month Andrew Bridgen, Tory MP for North West Leicestershire, labelled it a ‘white elephant that grows ever larger on huge amounts of taxpayers’ cash’.

Former Cabinet minister David Davis also called for the project to be cancelled and the funds spent elsewhere on the rail network.

The New Economics Foundation think tank also warned that the project would widen the north-south divide by drawing passengers towards the capital.