The cost of building HS2 between London and Birmingham could reach nearly £67bn – almost double an early projection for the entire project to the north.
HS2 Ltd executive chairman Sir Jon Thompson told MPs the estimated cost for phase one stood between £49bn and £56.6bn based on 2019 prices – but adjusting the range for current prices would mean “adding somewhere between £8bn and £10bn”.
The new estimate is nearly double what the high-speed network was expected to cost in 2013, when it had a price tag of £37.5bn.
That figure was based on 2009 prices for the entire planned network, including the routes from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds which have now been scrapped.
Giving evidence to parliament’s Transport Select Committee, Sir Jon said the costs for phase one had jumped due to original budgets being too low, poor delivery and inflation.
He said there was a “systemic problem” where budgets are set out early “based on very, very immature data”.
“You don’t have a design, you haven’t procured anything, there is no detail on which you can cost anything,” he explained.
“But then you get into the detailed design, you know exactly how big it is, what surfaces you want, how much concrete needs to be poured. Unsurprisingly you get a better number.”
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Image: The HS2 construction site at Curzon Street in Birmingham
Rishi Sunak took the controversial decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 to Manchester at the Tory party conference in October, attracting criticism from regional leaders who branded it a “betrayal” of northern voters.
The prime minister promised to spend the billions of cash savings on hundreds of other transport schemes across the country instead, including a new Network North project to join up northern cities by rail.
The government was recently mocked after it emerged roads in London will be revamped as part of the project.
A recent document published by the Department for Transport (DfT) which outlined plans for Network North stated the government believed phase one of HS2 should cost between £45bn and £54bn – and HS2 Ltd “should deliver at the lower end of this range”.
But Sir Jon told the committee: “It’s for the department and the government to decide what it wants to use that data for, but I do not believe that phase one could be delivered for £45bn.”
He also told the committee the decision to scrap HS2 north of Birmingham could lead to a reduction in seat capacity for train services between London and Manchester compared with today.
Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said: “This is a direct result of Rishi Sunak’s weak leadership and mismanagement of HS2.
“As chief secretary, chancellor and now PM Rishi Sunak has allowed costs to soar, and public money go down the drain.
“This is a government with no direction, no plan and no regard for taxpayers’ money.”
It is “shameful” that black boys growing up in London are “far more likely” to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News.
Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK’s largest police force in 2022, said: “We can’t pretend otherwise that we’ve got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong.
“And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt. I’m being as relentless in that as it can be.”
He said the “vast majority” of the force are “good people”.
However, he added: “But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern.”
Sir Mark, who also leads the UK’s counter-terrorism policing, said it is “not right” that black boys growing up in London “are far more likely to be dead by the time they’re 18” than white boys.
“That’s, I think, shameful for the city,” he admitted.
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Police chase suspected phone thief
Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.
She pinned the primary blame for the Met’s culture on its past leadership and found that stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive.
At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Casey insisted the Met deserved.
However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark – and could fire him – made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey’s verdict.
After the report was released, Sir Mark said “institutional” was political language so he was not going to use it, but he accepted “we have racists, misogynists…systematic failings, management failings, cultural failings”.
A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
Labour’s largest union donor, Unite, has voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over her role in the Birmingham bin strike row.
Members of the trade union, one of the UK’s largest, also “overwhelmingly” voted to “re-examine its relationship” with Labour over the issue.
They said Ms Rayner, who is also housing, communities and local government secretary, Birmingham Council’s leader, John Cotton, and other Labour councillors had been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.
There was confusion over Ms Rayner’s membership of Unite, with her office having said she was no longer a member and resigned months ago and therefore could not be suspended.
But Unite said she was registered as a member. Parliament’s latest register of interests had her down as a member in May.
The union said an emergency motion was put to members at its policy conference in Brighton on Friday.
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Unite is one of the Labour Party’s largest union donors, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025 – the highest amount in that period by a union, company or individual.
The union condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the government for “attacking the bin workers”.
Mountains of rubbish have been piling up in the city since January after workers first went on strike over changes to their pay, with all-out strike action starting in March. An agreement has still not been made.
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Rat catcher tackling Birmingham’s bins problem
Ms Rayner and the councillors had their membership suspended for “effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000”, the union added.
‘Missing in action’
General secretary Sharon Graham told Sky News on Saturday morning: “Angela Rayner, who has the power to solve this dispute, has been missing in action, has not been involved, is refusing to come to the table.”
She had earlier said: “Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.
“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.
“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.
“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”
Image: Piles of rubbish built up around Birmingham because of the strike over pay
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government’s “priority is and always has been the residents of Birmingham”.
He said the decision by Unite workers to go on strike had “caused disruption” to the city.
“We’ve worked to clean up streets and remain in close contact with the council […] as we support its recovery,” he added.
A total of 800 Unite delegates voted on the motion.
Binance co-founder CZ has dismissed a Bloomberg report linking him to the Trump-backed USD1 stablecoin, threatening legal action over alleged defamation.