Bosses at HS2 dined out on meals costing the taxpayer more than £500 a time, The Independent can reveal, as it emerged that the cost of the beleaguered project could spiral to more than £100 billion.
Documents on card spending by the company, which is building the London to Birmingham high-speed railway, show £1,649.84 was spent on three board dinners between October and December.
A total of £500.30 was spent at Italian restaurant chain Riva Blu, £589.54 at Drake & Morgan cocktail bar and restaurant group and £560 at Rare Restaurants, which operate Gaucho steakhouses and M brand restaurants.
HS2’s chief financial officer Alan Foster also made an additional £52.95 claim for “soft drinks, water and bread” on top of the dinner bill at Rare Restaurants.
The emergence of the expenses comes after transport secretary Heidi Alexander revealed the new estimated cost of the project had risen to between £87.7bn and £102.7bn, up from the £35bn to £45bn set in 2019.
She also told the Commons that trains will run more slowly in a bid to cut costs and the line’s opening will be delayed until at least 2036.
HS2 has 15 board members, including chief executive officer Mark Wild who, after his appointment 18 months ago, has been running a reset programme for the scheme aimed at improving the project’s delivery, reducing costs and speed up its completion.
A HS2 spokesperson defended the board dinners, which it said were an opportunity to “build relationships and hold detailed project discussions for which there is not always time during the day”.
The per-head cost of the dinners was £40 or less. It covered food and the venue, and not alcohol. Members were also not paid for their time during the dinners.
However, the spend has drawn criticism, including from former Tory minister Sir Gavin Williamson, whose Staffordshire constituency has been impacted by building of the line.
He said: “Instead of spending all their time in high-end cocktail bars spending taxpayers money if they should spend more time focused on driving down the cost that is literally bankrupt in this country.”
Campaign group The Taxpayers Alliance called the spend “simply ridiculous”.
Callum McGoldrick, investigations campaign manager at the group, said:”Taxpayers will be shocked but not surprised by these latest figures, having seen HS2 morph into a giant gravy train and a monument to failure.
“It’s simply ridiculous for HS2 bosses to stick hard-up Brits with the bill for fancy dinners masquerading as project discussions. If the HS2 board wants to have meetings, they should hold them in their offices during the working day like everyone else.”
The HS2 spokesperson said the restaurants were chosen to ensure the cost-per-head did not exceed a “reasonable value-for-money threshold”.
They said: “We take our commitment to managing public money seriously and adhere to strict Treasury guidelines on company expenses.
“Dinners are an extension of the board’s work. They provide opportunities to build relationships and hold detailed project discussions for which there is not always time during the day.”
HS2 was originally planned to connect London with Leeds and Manchester, but as The Independent revealed, it was cut down in size to run only to Birmingham in 2023. Since then, the project has faced continued criticism over spend and its impact on communities.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Wild said: “We have turned a corner in the last 12 months with significantly improved levels of productivity, helping us to deliver major milestones ahead of schedule. We’re also progressing with plans to bring HS2 into line with other high-speed railways in Europe – further reducing the project’s complexity without compromising on benefits.”
