Fears that the prime minister will scrap the northern leg of HS2 have grown after Number 10 said he was “alarmed” by the rising cost of the project.
Rishi Sunak has told allies that he is not prepared to watch the cost continue to escalate, after being presented with figures suggesting that the overall price could pass £100bn.
The high-speed rail link was estimated to cost £37.5bn in 2009. Ten years later that had grown to £88bn. Now it is expected to cost £106bn. Annual government spending on the project has risen from £2.8bn in 2019 to £6.9bn.
The Birmingham to Leeds leg has already been scrapped.
Speculation that the leg from Birmingham to Manchester could be cut has already resulted in strong criticism from two former Tory prime ministers, three former chancellors and the mayors of Birmingham and Manchester.
However, the prime minister is expected to delay a decision until the Autumn Statement, in the face of a backlash from senior Conservatives.
It is now thought the leg will be delayed by up to seven years, with a commitment not to scrap it completely.
It is understood that the prime minister may offer to fund a new underground rail station in Manchester as part of a transport investment package designed to win the support of mayor Andy Burnham.
The American buyers of Birmingham City FC said scrapping the line would “result in a loss of investor trust”.
One official said: “The whole project has been over-specced. It seems that the mantra of HS2 bosses has been to massively overspend all along to make it too big to kill… From the start they were like kids with the golden credit card.”
