Industry responds to chancellor George Osborne鈥檚 challenge to build HS2 on time and below budget

High speed Javelin train at Ashford station, HS2

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Bosses of some of the UK鈥檚 biggest construction firms have 鈥渁ccepted the challenge鈥� from George Osborne to build HS2 on time and below budget.

Last weekend, Osborne defended government support for the scheme and said 鈥渟ometimes鈥� the UK construction industry could deliver big complex schemes cheaper than expected.

In a today, the heads of Laing O鈥橰ourke, Arup, Atkins, Skanska, Balfour Beatty, Mott Macdonald and Kier all pledged to deliver the first phase of project on time and below the 拢17.16bn budget.

It said: 鈥淲e gladly accept the challenge of completing Phase One of HS2 on schedule 鈥� and for less than the government鈥檚 target of 拢17.16bn.鈥�

They attacked opponents of HS2 for quoting unrealistically large cost figures. 鈥淔unding secured for HS2 rightly includes a contingency 鈥� a responsible way to plan a project on this scale,鈥� they said. 鈥淵et artificially inflated figures circulated by opponents recently in no way represent the outcome we expect.鈥�

The letter said that it was impossible to capture the full wider benefits of the HS2 scheme.

The bosses said they 鈥渁pplauded鈥� the government鈥檚 investment in infrastructure and HS2 to address the 鈥渃apacity crunch鈥� on the rail and road networks.

鈥淏ritain鈥檚 construction sector delivered Heathrow Terminal 5, High Speed 1, and the London Olympics. Crossrail will undoubtedly be next,鈥� they added.

Full list of signatories

  • Philip Diller, chair, Arup group
  • David Tonkin, chief executive, Atkins UK
  • Andrew McNaughton, chief executive, Balfour Beatty
  • Paul Sheffield, chief executive, Kier Group
  • Anna Stewart, chief executive, Laing O鈥橰ourke
  • Keith Howells, chair, Mott MacDonald
  • Mike Putnam, chief executive, Skanska UK
  • Nelson Ogunshakin, chief executive, Association for Consulting and Engineering

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