Another delay to HS2 to be announced

The government will announce another delay to the beleaguered HS2 project on Wednesday, saying the latest target is now impossible.

Sky News understands that Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander will announce that the London to Birmingham line will no longer be ready to open by 2033. It is not clear what the new target date will be.

Ms Alexander is expected to blame the Tories for a "litany of failure" that drove the costs up by £37bn since 2012, when the high-speed rail network was approved by the coalition government. As first reported by The Telegraph, she is also expected to raise concerns that taxpayers may have been defrauded by subcontractors and pledge that "consequences will be felt".

Ms Alexander's announcement will come alongside the findings of two reviews into HS2, looking into what went wrong and how and when to construct the rest of it. She will tell MPs: "Billions of pounds of taxpayers' money has been wasted by constant scope changes, ineffective contracts and bad management.

"It's an appalling mess. But it's one we will sort out." HS2 was originally planned to cut journey times and improve connectivity between London and the Midlands and the North.

It was given the go-ahead in 2012 with the aim of operating by 2026, but has since been mired in setbacks and spiralling costs. Read More:HS2 boss reveals £100m bill for a railway line 'bat shed' that 'isn't needed' The initial plan was to build the first phase connecting London and Birmingham, followed by adding two branches to Manchester and Leeds.

However, Boris Johnson scrapped the leg to Leeds in 2021, while Rishi Sunak pulled the plug on the remainder of the second phase to Manchester in 2023 because of spiralling costs. The latest time scales give an opening date of between 2029 and 2033 for the London to Birmingham leg, which is under construction.

The most recent cost estimate was £49bn to £56.6bn (in 2019 prices), according to a House of Commons research briefing. The original bill for the entire project at 2009 prices, when the idea was first conceived, was supposed to be £37.5bn..