Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 12
8th Report - Northern Powerhouse Rail
Published 1 Jul 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Northern Powerhouse Rail All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The NAO found the Department had established appropriate steps to identify lessons from other major programmes, but that it needed to go further to embed these in Northern Powerhouse Rail.23 In oral evidence, the Department was clear on the importance of learning from past failures, such as on HS2. It identified some examples of how it had changed its approach in response to the lessons, such as not determining the delivery model too fast, taking time to get the scoping and design right before starting construction, and not specifying cost estimates too early. The Department reported it was applying a structured set of lessons from HS2, Crossrail and other major infrastructure projects. It also explained it was learning positive lessons from the successes of the Transpennine Route Upgrade programme, which it said was on track to deliver early passenger benefits.24 18 Qq 18-19 and 49 19 Q 9 20 Qq 29-30 and 63 21 Q 30 22 Qq 60–63 23 C&AG’s report, para 16 24 Qq 3, 9 and 66 10
From: Public Accounts Committee, 8th Report - Northern Powerhouse Rail (HC 97), 1 July 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 September 2026 (deadline 1 September 2026).