Recommendation 12

In March 2023, following an announcement by the Secretary of State for Transport, the Department paused new construction work on the HS2 Euston station for the next two years to reduce spend over that period and to give it time to develop an affordable and deliverable design.24 The Department and HS2 Ltd do not yet know the cost of pausing construction. When asked about how much that would be, both the Department and HS2 Ltd referred to the £2 billion spend to date at Euston and the surrounding area on preparing and enabling the site for construction as “no-regrets work” that it would expect to be relevant to any future design.25 The Department told us that it will not know what the pause at Euston will cost until it finds out how much of the first two designs it can use in its next attempt at getting an affordable design.26 The Department stressed that it hopes and expects that the costs associated with the pause will be offset by finding a more affordable design.27 However, as the NAO has reported, there will be more costs from its supply chain stopping and re-starting work, for example from demobilising and remobilising staff, contractual changes, and project and site management costs being incurred for a longer period.28 HS2 Ltd told us that it expects to spend more than £200 million at Euston to wind up the works and make the site secure.29 18 Qq 30, 32 19 Qq 28, 30–31 20 Qq 8, 57 21 Q 31; C&AG’s Report, para 8 22 Q 23 23 Qq 37, 45, 59 24 C&AG’s Report, page 4 25 Qq 23, 38 26 Qq 44–45 27 Q 38 28 C&AG’s Report, para 2.24 29 Q 39 12 HS2 Euston