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The surprise here is what?

The company in charge of constructing the HS2 railway has been accused of deliberately covering up its escalating costs to ensure politicians would keep spending billions of pounds of public money on the project.

Whistleblowers from HS2 Ltd have described how senior managers instructed staff to keep cost estimates artificially low. Each was sacked after trying to raise concerns.

That’s what happens with political projects. There’s no proper budgeting nor control of costs – because there’s no true limit to hte amount of money that can be sucked into it. Sure Britishvolt failed – but at a much, much, earlier stage of the moneywaste. Which is why we use the private sector, not public, to do these things.

23 thoughts on “The surprise here is what?”

  1. Bear in mind that Network Rail’s procurement policy is to always select the lowest price in a tender (at least it was when I was there and I doubt it has changed), rather than look at it in combination with the technical aspect of the bid. They opt for cheap (on paper) over quality and a sensible price. So of course the consequences are that bidders will under bid and escalate costs later.

  2. The crooks in the WORLDS FINEST HEALTH SERVICE and the WORLDS FINEST BROADCASTER must be relieved. With Sir Kneel’s cretins (as opposed to the blue rosette socialist cretins) in charge they’re safe for at least 5 years if not 25…

  3. It’s all about the money and only the money. Look at it a bit sideways and you can see that a pile of money was intentionally created so that it could be trousered by a whole load of corporate or governmental interests. it didn’t start with a requirement for a railway but for a fund to be plundered. And everybody gets a share. Well, everybody who is anybody. And it’s all government money, so nobody pays. Because it doesn’t exist as actual money, it can be printed as required or plucked from that magic tree.

    This whole thing is a scam and that goes for most government big-money projects.

  4. Didn’t the Scottish Parliament building end up costing something like a hundred times the original estimate?

    I used to have to do costings for custom built industrial machines. If I had done my sums wrong the company would have had to take the hit, we wouldn’t have been able to ask the customer for more money after sending them a written quote. It wasn’t that hard really. I had the cost of all the parts and materials to hand and a good idea of how long it would take me to build the thing, van hire and a day for delivery and installation, a night in a hotel if it was at the other end of the country. Building a railway line is obviously more complicated but the same basic principles apply.

  5. Longrider – Bear in mind that Network Rail’s procurement policy is to always select the lowest price in a tender (at least it was when I was there and I doubt it has changed), rather than look at it in combination with the technical aspect of the bid. They opt for cheap (on paper) over quality and a sensible price. So of course the consequences are that bidders will under bid and escalate costs later.

    This is also how complex, large scale public sector IT projects are purchased, despite the ITT claiming to be based on 70% Quality.

    You either lose the bid (and possibly your job) or you Change Control the fuck out of them after winning.

  6. So of course the consequences are that bidders will under bid and escalate costs later.

    And of course I was involved in numerous IT projects that did just this from the late 1980s onwards.

    Although our ones worked… eventually.

  7. “it didn’t start with a requirement for a railway but for a fund to be plundered. And everybody gets a share. Well, everybody who is anybody. ”

    Some does trickle down a bit, beyond the corporate classes. I visited a farm earlier this year that was close to the HS2 route. Out the back of the farm yard the farmer had created a secure compound in which were parked 20-30 caravans. These were all used by HS2 construction workers to live in during the week while on site, going home only at weekends. Apparently the going rate for parking was £80/week per caravan. A very nice little earner for the farm owner…….I was told that the workers were on £1500-2000/week on average, so they weren’t going to begrudge a few quid to park up close to work. I expect local B&Bs are stuffed with HS2 workers too, probably holiday rentals as well.

  8. While agreeing with every negative comment regarding public sector procurement, there is another factor at play, and that is that the ‘requirements’ change at many points during a multi-year project, and they do rack up genuine costs, although smart contractors will allow for this (and the increases in profits).

    Moreover, anything to do with the ground inevitably bears the risk of what you find when you dig, from Saxon burials to unexploded ordnance.

    But to mention the genuine reasons for cost increases is not to naysay the real reasons: total fucking incompetence laced with graft.

  9. This is a railway, nothing more. A railway not much more than 100 miles in length, which we KNOW ABSOLUTELY (and have always known) will be utterly useless and largely unused (at least by people who might actually generate some wealth – although fuck me, a lot of wealth would need to be generated!! – rather than bloated governmental/political teat suckers).

    And it is FIVE TIMES over budget, and who knows how much by the time it is finished, if ever it will be.

    Trickle down? I suppose like quantum effects at absolute zero!

    This is beyond incompetence, it’s beyond mere corruption. It’s a political/ bureaucratic/kleptocratic machine that is simply out of control in the knowledge that it is not and will never be held accountable.

    You begin to get some idea of what dwellers on the shores of the Aral sea must have felt as they watched the waters recede.

  10. And what is galling, Mark, is that everybody who actually looked into rhe scheme said that rhis whole farrago is exactly what would happen.

    Boris gave the scheme a green light because Tory donors in the construction industry had thousands upon thousands of workers committed to it.

    I wonder how ,any still contribute to party funds ?

  11. the real reasons: total fucking incompetence laced with graft.
    I’d refer you to Rhoda’s comment.
    And add: Look at it from the point of view of all the people involved seeking to maximise what they perceive as their individual personal advantage. Then they’re not incompetent, are they? They are competent at maximising their personal advantage.
    If one doesn’t understand what the problem actually is, one will never solve the problem.
    It’s why the private sector is often more successful. The incentives for the individuals more closely align with what’s trying to be achieved.

  12. Willie Brown, former Speaker of California’s Assembly and Mayor of San Francisco once wrote about an over budget project:

    “News that the Transbay Terminal is something like $300 million over budget should not come as a shock to anyone. We always knew the initial estimate was way under the real cost. Just like we never had a real cost for the Central Subway or the Bay Bridge or any other massive construction project.

    So get off it. In the world of civic projects, the first budget is really just a down payment. If people knew the real cost from the start, nothing would ever be approved. The idea is to get going. Start digging a hole and make it so big, there’s no alternative to coming up with the money to fill it in.”

  13. It’s also worth noting that the people campaign for these projects also do so to maximise their individual personal advantage. No other reason. So one way of stopping them would be to make very public what the campaigners are getting out of it.

  14. Willie Brown, former Speaker of California’s Assembly and Mayor of San Francisco

    And shagger of Kamala Harris, who got her start as DA ‘under’ him.

    It’s also worth noting that the people campaign for these projects also do so to maximise their individual personal advantage.

    Andrew Adonis, the original instigator, ended up with £1,000 a day non-exec position with HS2 Ltd. Brown envelopes are so passé.

  15. Kamala Harris is a prime exhibit of just how high you can go flatbacking your way up the greasy pole. I suspect ambitious young women everywhere are taking note.

  16. @Stonyground – “we wouldn’t have been able to ask the customer for more money after sending them a written quote”

    Bear in mind the saying “If you can’t pay when you owe a bank a million pounds, you have a big problem: if you can’t pay when you owe the bank a few billions, the bank has a big problem”. No company is big enough to be able to give a binding quote for a project as big as HS2. When the huge cost overruns appear, the company would simply be bankrupt and the guarantee worthless.

  17. “ended up with £1,000 a day non-exec position with HS2 Ltd.”

    Not actually high. Friend of mine is leaving his 6-figure County Council job doing ‘something or other’ on 31st October. On 1st November he starts work at the same County Council as a consultant on a day rate of £795.

  18. “deliberately covering up its escalating costs to ensure politicians would keep spending billions of pounds of public money on the project”.

    Ala’ the introduction of the NHS. ‘If I tell the treasury the REAL running costs they’ll never allow it ‘ Bevan? 1948

  19. BIS,

    “And add: Look at it from the point of view of all the people involved seeking to maximise what they perceive as their individual personal advantage. Then they’re not incompetent, are they? They are competent at maximising their personal advantage.
    If one doesn’t understand what the problem actually is, one will never solve the problem.
    It’s why the private sector is often more successful. The incentives for the individuals more closely align with what’s trying to be achieved.”

    The thing I always say about the public sector is that very few of them are ideologically committed. They just like Labour because of bigger pay rises and more job security. And the overwhelming sin of people in the public sector is idleness and time wasting because no-one puts any downward pressure on them to improve.

    The main incentives in the public sector are not to go against the rules. The one I always refer to is how if you nip home and bring in your PC monitor you’ll get praised for initiative in the private sector, but punished for breaking the rule in the public sector (“is that an approved monitor etc etc”).

  20. Not actually high. Friend of mine is leaving his 6-figure County Council job doing ‘something or other’ on 31st October. On 1st November he starts work at the same County Council as a consultant on a day rate of £795.

    Oh yes, my day rate was much higher than that. But I had to work for my money (as, I’d hope, would your friend, although at a council it’s hardly guaranteed). I suspect the money just dropped into Adonis’s bank account every month.

  21. HS2: Way back in time Gov’t asked private sector “Will you do it?”

    Answer was No – not needed, no profit, stupid idea

    @Stonyground, October 22, 2023 at 8:58 am
    Didn’t the Scottish Parliament building end up costing something like a hundred times the original estimate?

    Original budget was £20 million. Cost when opened was ~£800 million

    Since opening tens, hundreds of millions spent fixing leaks, structural defects…

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