The cost of building the London-to-Birmingham stretch of the HS2 high-speed railway has jumped by a fifth in four months to £68bn.
The news of the increase comes after the prime minister pledged to scrap the northern leg of the scheme, between Birmingham and Manchester, claiming this would save £36bn.
Department for Transport figures show that the upper cost estimate of the London-to-Birmingham leg, in 2019 prices, had risen sharply from £45bn in June to £54bn in October. In today’s prices, that figure rises to £68bn.
The original budget for the entire railway, which would have connected London to both Manchester and Leeds via Birmingham, was less than £33bn when it was approved in 2012.
