HS2 boss says it was RIGHT to spend £100million on a BAT tunnel as he admits it might be two extra years earlier than crisis-plagued rail undertaking costing tens of billions is again on monitor

The new boss of the beleaguered and massively over-budget HS2 rail scheme today refused to apologise for it spending £100million on a tunnel for bats.

Mark Wild told MPs the much-criticised and eye wateringly expensive structure in Buckinghamshire was the ‘most appropriate’ way to ‘comply with the law’.

HS2 has come under major fire in recent months over the mesh structure at Sheephouse Wood, demanded by Natural England because bats are legally protected in the UK.

But Mr Wild told MPs: ‘At the end of the day, HS2 Ltd must obviously comply with the law, and the law says that we must mitigate damage, harm, to protected species … I can’t apologise for complying with the law.’

Mr Wild and senior officials appeared in front of MPs this morning after it was revealed the cost of building HS2 could hit £86billion – a £9billion increase on the previous estimate.

A senior civil servant told the Public Accounts Committee that it would be well into next year before an accurate estimate of the project cost could be released, as HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport do not agree.

Mr Wild admitted that HS2 Ltd had ‘failed’ to keep costs down, started construction too early, failed to manage risks and made incorrect assumptions about productivity.

And he said that a new plan of action might not be completed until well into 2026.

Challenged on the cost of the bat tunnel by Labour MP Luke Charters, Mark Wild said: ‘This structure is the most appropriate.

‘It is an extraordinary amount of money but it is in the context of a scheme that is costing tens of billions and it’s built for 120 years.’

Department for Transport permanent secretary Dame Bernadette Kelly said the department and the Treasury had ‘challenged’ the building of the bat tunnel, but found it was ‘the most efficient remedy’ for protecting the species.

Last month, HS2 executive chairman Sir Jon Thompson told a rail industry conference the structure in Buckinghamshire is needed to appease Natural England because bats are legally protected in the UK.

This is despite there being ‘no evidence’ that the trains will interfere with the mammals, he said.

The curved structure will run for around one kilometre (0.6 miles) alongside Sheephouse Wood, creating a barrier allowing bats to cross above the high-speed railway without being affected by passing trains.

Other more expensive options, including a bored tunnel and re-routing the railway away from the wood, were considered during the passage of the High Speed Two (London to West Midlands) Act through Parliament.

After receiving the go ahead from Natural England for the design, HS2 Ltd was forced to spend ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ on lawyers and environmental specialists because the local council did not approve the work, Sir Jon said.

In the end the local council had to be over-ruled to get it built. 

Dame Bernadette also admitted the Government does not know how much HS2 will cost.

The top civil servant at the Department for Transport told the committee: ‘We do not currently have an agreed cost estimate now for phase one.’

HS2 Ltd has provided a cost estimate of £54-66 billion, in 2019 prices, but Dame Bernadette said the department did not ‘regard it as a reliable and agreed cost estimate’.

But if inflation is taken into account the latest figure would be closer to £80billion.

She said: ‘I say with great regret, sitting before the committee, that is the situation.’

Dame Bernadette added that coming up with an agreed cost estimate would be ‘extremely complex’ and would not be done until ‘well into 2025’.