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.
