I watched a depressing Panorma Documentary the other day on the apparent fraud which the HS2 company has been engaged in over the last decade...
The documentary charts how the company HS2, charged with developing the High Speed trainline between London and originally Manchester, since scaled back to just Birmingham, systematically mmisled parliament about the costs, resulting in an ever increasing budget, which was originally £32 billion, but ended up coming in at closer to £100BN, for a reduced line!
One mistake was their decision to take it straight through the Chilterns, an area of outstanding natural beauty, which required building several tunnels and viaducts, which cost an astronomical £50Bn.
They also featured interviews with lower level employees who were sacked by trying to raise issues about the over-optimistic budgets for the project.
One guy tasked with estimating the cost of purchasing lands calculated it would cost nearly £5 billion, but the chief exec sacked him before he could present his estimate, and HS2 ended up presenting costs to government with a £2.8 billion purchase figure.
The only way they could have come in on that budget is by paying people MUCH LESS than the value of their land.
This was in 2015, before the project had royal assent, the decision had been made to not ask for more money - deliberately withholding info = fraud.
Levelling Up....?
In 2018 HS2 got a new chair. When he joined the budget = 55.7 BN. He did a stock take and came out with a more realistic finishing budget of £80 billion. However despite informing the government of this in a committee meeting, one MP present decided to ignore that and still told parliament the budget was the original £55.7 bn.
Then when Boris johnson got into power he ordered a review, to be headed by,,,, a former chair of HS2, whcih came out with a £100 BN estimate.
I don't think it mattered what the outcome of that review, Boris was in favour of HS2 and it was going to be completed, as part of his wider levelling up agenda.
Although TBH by that point you can hardly blame Boris, once so much money has already been spent you may as well finish the project off!
The latest
The Manchester line was finally cancelled in 2023.
The line is no longer going into central London, it's stopping at Old Oak Common, despite £1.5BN having already been spent on Euston.
Many of those who have land compulsorily purchased in the now cancelled northern section aren't necessarily getting back, because there may well be further railway developments taking place in the north separate to HS2, but that remains to be seen!
Final thoughts...
What a waste of public money, it's mainly the fraud of the HS2 company in misleading parliament about the increasing costs of the project along the way, but probably a lot of the construction companies are taking their cut too.
£100BN for a trainline which is now going to save us no more time than the regular line, because it'll take you so long to get to Old Oak Common on the edge of London anyway!