National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) Chair Sir John Armitt CBE has aired doubts over the governance of HS2 during a Transport Select Committee hearing.
National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) Chair Sir John Armitt CBE has aired doubts over the governance of HS2 during a Transport Select Committee hearing.
Armitt said he had “never been convinced of the governance structure of HS2” and said that there was too much oversight from government departments. The Transport Select Committee was hearing evidence from the NIC regarding the costs of major infrastructure projects and its thoughts on how to address the issues the wider industry is facing.
When asked by the Committee chair, Ruth Cadbury on his thoughts on the Government plans to bring the project under the control of The Department for Transport, Armitt responded:
“Transport in particular is intensely political, so I can understand why politicians want to know what is going on, especially when they must sit here and defend the decisions. However, that is bound to lead to delays.”
DfT has recently decided to take greater oversight of HS2 after costs for the project continued to rise, even after the previous government had scrapped the northern leg in 2023. Current estimations for the total project are close to £70 billion. Mark Wild, who oversaw the Crossrail project and successfully curbed costs on the scheme has taken up the role as Chief Executive for HS2 Ltd. He stated at the last Transport Select Committee hearing that a fundamental reset of the whole project was needed and believed it would take the whole of 2025 to do so.
Armitt welcomed this but also said that fundamental issues still existed within the scheme, especially when it came to planning permissions.
“I think there are 12,000 individual local planning agreements which HS2 has had to make after the hybrid bill was passed. So HS2 could think “ooh, we’ve got the hybrid bill we can get on with it” but you’ve then got endless local negotiations to take place.
“You then run the risk of saying ok, just to make progress.”
NIC released its annual Infrastructure Progress Review last May and said that HS2’s decision to scrap the northern leg of the scheme would constrain growth and interconnectivity. Armitt said in the meeting that was still an issue which “was not going away” but solutions would be needed.
Costs will always be an issue added Armitt but said that Government was not good at saying no.
“Government has a desire to please people, rather than taking a private sector approach and saying it has no more money and that is all it can afford – I don’t think the Government is very good at saying that.”
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Richard is RAIL's Industry Editor. He covers industry news from across the rail sector in the UK - including developments on policy, innovation, manufacturing and the wider industry.
He has written for rail publications across the UK for several years and contributes to news, analysis and features for both web and the magazine.
Fingers21 - 15/01/2025 21:20
The scheme should of started from north to south then no would not be a option. Also even if it was to choose a city Manchester or Leeds to start with a later date for the other at least it would be built, and less trouble. There again maybe this would be the chance to say HS1 can join HS2 and connect somewhere else other than London after all we have airports and seaport so this would be a extention of that and a rail port you still need your passport or proof to be there. By then government might have your ID on your phone for Railcard/Bus pass/ Passport/Driving licence/ Government Number in one app but security better be there first.