HS2: The new UK train line set to be approved despite already being £20bn over budget
Huge HS2 plans could be about to get a revival - but if Chancellor Rachel Reeves has not secured private backing, it'll be at a mammoth cost to the taxpayer.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to stomp all over the former-Conservative government's plans to scale back HS2 in this month's Autumn Budget.
She is expected to approve the extension of HS2 into London Euston Station, ensuring the line runs into the centre of the city, rather than ending at Old Oak Common, in the west. The huge U-turn is expected despite the project's spiralling costs - estimated to be £20 billion over budget.
Reeves will reportedly use her first Budget next month to approve funding for it, which will also include a multi-billion-pound transformation of Euston.
A government source told The Sunday Times: “HS2 just wouldn’t work if the terminus was not at Euston. The station is also well overdue for investment and has become a dystopian mess and a stain on London.”
Ms Reeves is reportedly also considering changing how the government’s fiscal rules are calculated to free up £50bn for large-scale infrastructure projects.
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak decided to scale back plans for HS2 last year due to the soaring costs associated with the plans.
It is not yet known if Labour has been able to attract private investment in the project, which is expected to cost billions of pounds. Without private backing, it will be down to the taxpayer to foot the bill.
However, a government source said the Chancellor was likely to approve the Euston extension without finalising the financing arrangements.
It must also decide whether to retain Mr Sunak’s slimmed-down plans for a six-platform HS2 terminus or reinstate the original blueprint for an 11-platform layout, with a new Tube station.
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This comes a month after two 1,700-tonne boring machines were delivered from Germany. The company overseeing HS2 has warned they cannot be left underground indefinitely and that drilling must begin early next year.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh told the Evening Standard earlier this month that HS2 would never have been built to link Birmingham with Old Oak Common.
She said: “Clearly Euston is going to be part of the wider picture but we will be making a decision soon on the tunnelling and the development.”
Separately, Ms Reeves is also thought to be preparing to approve a new rail link between Liverpool and Manchester that would run via Manchester Airport.
