Overview
- The government announced a formal reset on May 20, 2026 that puts the London–Birmingham programme’s cost at £87.7bn–£102.7bn in 2025 prices and sets new opening windows for Old Oak Common to Birmingham between 2036 and 2039 and for the full Euston/West Coast connection between 2040 and 2043.
- Press‑reported documents show that including HS2 Ltd’s internal inflation forecasts would raise the cash estimate to about £94.3bn–£112.4bn, a discrepancy that has triggered accusations that the official figures understate the near‑term cash need.
- To cut complexity and save up to around £2.5bn, the programme caps train top speed at 320 km/h rather than the previously planned 360 km/h, a change ministers say will slightly shorten delivery time and reduce engineering demands.
- HS2 Ltd has pared roughly 300 back‑office roles, is reassessing supplier contracts and installed new leadership to improve delivery, while the chief executive warned cancellation now could cost an estimated £33bn–£58bn to remediate built works.
- Funding through the current spending envelope covers near‑term work but analysts say the reset will create an £18bn–£33bn call on public money by the end of the spending period, renewing debate over trade‑offs with other transport and regional priorities and the project’s long history of overruns and scope cuts.