* The construction and engineering industry has been paid more than £32 billion — of which £27 billion has gone to 13 main firms.
* A total of 122 media and PR companies have made £33 million, and 44 events and hospitality firms have received £8 million.
* Charities, non-profits and community groups have received more than £11 million, including £478,000 to the Dogs Trust to rehome 25 animals for two years.
* Utility companies, including Thames Water and Cadent Gas, have received £1.3 billion to replace infrastructure in the way of HS2’s new tunnels.
* HS2 bosses spent £8,800 hiring photo booths for career events for young people.
* Other payments include £10,800 to the internet forum Mumsnet; £1,100 to a Bikram yoga studio in Primrose Hill; £25,000 to a ceramics charity; and £231,000 to the Royal College of General Practitioners to soundproof exam rooms for doctors.
>This week we reveal the 13 construction firms that have received more than £1 billion each to work on the project, as well as the tens of millions of pounds paid to PR companies, accountants, lawyers, consultants, utilities firms and charities.
>In total HS2 has spent £38.8 billion so far — already more than the £37.5 billion originally budgeted — to organisations across 27 sectors.
>The HS2 Rich List has analysed more than 80,000 payments to 1,643 suppliers who have worked on HS2 since the project was established in 2009. They range from the £5.3 billion paid to the construction giant Balfour Beatty to a £200 charitable donation to the Bengali Workers’ Association.
>Lord Berkeley, a former civil engineer, said: “The government negotiated the contracts very badly or, worse than that, they didn’t negotiate anything at all. They left it to HS2 to negotiate it and then turned a blind eye. They accepted whatever contract price HS2 came up with and then signed it off. The Department for Transport have completely failed at this.”
>HS2 was supposed to start transporting passengers next year but the completion date is now 2033. There are now fears the project could cost more than £100 billion in today’s prices.
>While HS2 Ltd is a private company charged with delivering the rail line, it is backed by the Department for Transport (DfT), which ultimately pays all costs. The figures are compiled from publicly available invoice data for HS2 published by the DfT and collated by The Sunday Times.
>The figures are not adjusted for inflation and are based on actual amounts invoiced in each financial year. As HS2 is exempt from VAT, 20 per cent of costs are claimed back from HM Revenue & Customs each year.
>They do not include payments from 2025, which have not yet been published, nor the £3.8 billion spent buying 1,725 properties near the route, as these are private agreements and not part of the DfT figures.
!ping UK
mostanonymousnick on
“Who’s made billions” is a fine question to ask but “who’s cost billions” also is, we can look at the £1000s going to not strictly necessary things but whoever put building a 0.6 miles bat tunnel for £100million in the requirements is clearly a much bigger problem.
CheeseMakerThing on
>when any business involved in construction overran its costs, it faced no liability
Wat
> many contracts had been arranged, and construction started, too soon — before anyone had done a proper assessment of the costs — meaning estimates were often wildly out.
Wat
Most of this is just fluff, the vast majority being spent on things actually pertinent to the construction. But no liability for contractors and no proper optioneering with costs is insanely negligent.
3 Comments
Archived version: [https://archive.is/O07NT](https://archive.is/O07NT).
* The construction and engineering industry has been paid more than £32 billion — of which £27 billion has gone to 13 main firms.
* A total of 122 media and PR companies have made £33 million, and 44 events and hospitality firms have received £8 million.
* Charities, non-profits and community groups have received more than £11 million, including £478,000 to the Dogs Trust to rehome 25 animals for two years.
* Utility companies, including Thames Water and Cadent Gas, have received £1.3 billion to replace infrastructure in the way of HS2’s new tunnels.
* HS2 bosses spent £8,800 hiring photo booths for career events for young people.
* Other payments include £10,800 to the internet forum Mumsnet; £1,100 to a Bikram yoga studio in Primrose Hill; £25,000 to a ceramics charity; and £231,000 to the Royal College of General Practitioners to soundproof exam rooms for doctors.
>This week we reveal the 13 construction firms that have received more than £1 billion each to work on the project, as well as the tens of millions of pounds paid to PR companies, accountants, lawyers, consultants, utilities firms and charities.
>In total HS2 has spent £38.8 billion so far — already more than the £37.5 billion originally budgeted — to organisations across 27 sectors.
>The HS2 Rich List has analysed more than 80,000 payments to 1,643 suppliers who have worked on HS2 since the project was established in 2009. They range from the £5.3 billion paid to the construction giant Balfour Beatty to a £200 charitable donation to the Bengali Workers’ Association.
>Lord Berkeley, a former civil engineer, said: “The government negotiated the contracts very badly or, worse than that, they didn’t negotiate anything at all. They left it to HS2 to negotiate it and then turned a blind eye. They accepted whatever contract price HS2 came up with and then signed it off. The Department for Transport have completely failed at this.”
>HS2 was supposed to start transporting passengers next year but the completion date is now 2033. There are now fears the project could cost more than £100 billion in today’s prices.
>While HS2 Ltd is a private company charged with delivering the rail line, it is backed by the Department for Transport (DfT), which ultimately pays all costs. The figures are compiled from publicly available invoice data for HS2 published by the DfT and collated by The Sunday Times.
https://preview.redd.it/wu3nhidqaibf1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8235e4ee72f256f4192715131bdff45e29445459
>The figures are not adjusted for inflation and are based on actual amounts invoiced in each financial year. As HS2 is exempt from VAT, 20 per cent of costs are claimed back from HM Revenue & Customs each year.
>They do not include payments from 2025, which have not yet been published, nor the £3.8 billion spent buying 1,725 properties near the route, as these are private agreements and not part of the DfT figures.
!ping UK
“Who’s made billions” is a fine question to ask but “who’s cost billions” also is, we can look at the £1000s going to not strictly necessary things but whoever put building a 0.6 miles bat tunnel for £100million in the requirements is clearly a much bigger problem.
>when any business involved in construction overran its costs, it faced no liability
Wat
> many contracts had been arranged, and construction started, too soon — before anyone had done a proper assessment of the costs — meaning estimates were often wildly out.
Wat
Most of this is just fluff, the vast majority being spent on things actually pertinent to the construction. But no liability for contractors and no proper optioneering with costs is insanely negligent.