Former transport secretary Lord Adonis tells HS2 boss to 'get a grip on costs'

 
Recommendation: Lord Adonis says moving Lords to the North would stop them looking out of touch
Press Association19 November 2013

The former transport secretary Andrew Adonis, who is a keen proponent of high speed rail, has told the new HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins that he must 'get a firm grip on costs' and that the line cannot be built at 'any price'.

Lord Adonis, the Labour peer who was transport secretary when plans for HS2, which would run from London to the Midlands and the North, were set out under the last administration, called on Sir David to review the situation with "urgency".

Labour support for the project hasnevertheless hardened in recent weeks after it was thrown into doubt by shadow chancellor Ed Balls questioning at his party's annual conference whether so much money should be spent on it and senior figures such as Lord Mandelson speaking out against it.

Today Lord Adonis, the shadow infrastructure minister, praised the "constructive" role played by Prime Minister David Cameron in "keeping this a national project not a party project".

He said the approach was "fully reciprocated" by Labour leader Ed Miliband.

But he called on Sir David, the chief executive of Network Rail and former chief executive of the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority who takes over as chairman of HS2 Ltd next year, to deal with "teething problems".

He told peers: "Sir David Higgins needs to get a firm grip on management costs of HS2, including the recent increase in the projected cost from £32 billion to £42 billion - an increase largely due to a sudden and, in my view, hard to justify decision by the Treasury to impose an extra £6 billion of contingency on the project, taking the contingency alone to £14 billion

"HS2 cannot be at any price and this represents a 50 per cent contingency on the costed design of £28 billion.

"We look to Sir David Higgins to review these costs and to stress test the figures with some urgency."

Lord Adonis' comments came as peers debated the High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill, which authorises the Government to spend money on the project.

The Bill is expected to pass all its Lords stages today and then become law.

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