Oakervee Review decision expected on HS2 delayed until after the General Election

The Sunday Telegraph reported over the weekend that the outcome of the Oakervee review into High Speed 2 is expected to be delayed until after the general election, despite Transport Secretary Grant Shapps promising the review and a decision from Government by this autumn.

The date for the general election is set for Thursday, December 12.

In August, Grant Shapps, Minister at the Department for Transport said that a no-go decision on HS2 would be made in the Autumn.

A report into the £88bn rail line was headed up by chair Doug Oakervee and was scheduled for release during mid-October.

According to Lord Berkeley, the deputy chairman of the official review into the high-speed rail scheme, the report remains unfinished and will be kept under wraps for the foreseeable future in the Department for Transport vaults.

He wrote on Twitter: “Report not finished and no opportunity to influence conclusions. We are told that, when completed by Doug [Oakervee] and the DfT secretariat, it will be locked into the DfT vaults for the new S of S [secretary of state] to publish.”

The review panel were officially dismissed on October 31, but there is no sign of the findings being published.

In a statement in September, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “The review will report to me this autumn. I will discuss its findings with the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Its recommendations will inform our decisions on our next steps.”

Earlier this year, the DFT confirmed that the rail line would not be delivered on time nor on budget.

HS2 was due to be finished in 2033 and might now be delayed until 2040.

And the project, due to cost £55.7 billion in total, might now cost up to £78 billion.

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