L

Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 22 June 2026

Debate

HS2 Ltd: Consultants

Contribution

I have the greatest respect for the noble Lord and his knowledge, and I know that he travels regularly on the Midland Main Line. I am sure that I will be standing here as soon as there are some concrete facts on the accident. The noble Lord is right: the reports suggest that we certainly do not build major projects very cheaply. I say to him—I hope he is familiar with this anyway—that we can do large projects. The Transpennine Route Upgrade—which nobody talks about, which will cost at least £13 billion to £14 billion and is in hand now on a railway that is operating every day—is on time and on budget. It is worth reflecting that the claims that this country can no longer do these things are not correct. We can do them, but they need to be thought about and planned properly—you do not start the job until you know what you are buying—and then managed cleverly by people who know what they are doing, in partnership with contractors. The result will be that we will show that we can do a big project on the railway in the north of England.

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