00:00Costs soared by £37 billion under the previous government alone.
00:06Billions of taxpayers' money was sunk into Phase 2 work for the sections north of Birmingham before they were abruptly
00:15cancelled.
00:16Huge contracts were handed out without improvement in price, despite the Okavee Review's recommendation to negotiate a better position.
00:25Instead of signalling the country's ambition, HS2 became a symbol of this country's decline.
00:33HS2's boss has described the increase in the cost of the project as terrible news.
00:40Chief Executive Mark Wilde told MPs the budgets doubled in five years.
00:46The government announced on Tuesday that the expected cost of completing the high-speed railway was between £87.7 billion
00:55and £102.7 billion.
00:59And the date it will begin operating could be as far as 13 years from now, with a new target
01:06opening schedule for HS2 between May 2036 and October 2039.
01:12However, Mr Wilde said he is very confident that these bookends of time and cost are robust.
01:20And after more than five years of construction and over £40 billion spent, the country was no closer to having
01:28an operational HS2 railway than when construction first began.
01:33The new leadership team at HS2 is turning things around.
01:37Six major construction milestones were reached earlier than planned in the past year.
01:44The organisation is more focused on the things that matter, with 300 back-office roles removed.
01:51HS2 Limited is reviewing its supply chain contracts and the incentives within them to ensure we finish the job at
01:59the lowest reasonable cost.
02:01And it is managing those contractors properly now to make sure supplier performance is up to scratch.
02:09But there's no getting away from the fact, Mr Speaker, that the vast majority of HS2's previous budget was blown
02:17on completing around a third of the entire project.
02:22And over the past year, Mark Wilde and HS2 Limited have worked closely with me and my department to assess
02:31the remaining work to be done.
02:34They have now provided me with updated costs and timescales, which I can share with the House.
02:40It gives me no pleasure to say the expected cost of completing HS2 is now between £87.7 billion and
02:51£102.7 billion priced in 2025.
02:55GB TV
02:57Thank you for listening.
02:59You
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