John Campbell

---

, The government has developed the controversial High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project to link London , Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. The Project encountered numerous problems, with a review of the warning could Cost twice as much as £106bn.

But HS2 is far from alone when It Comes to projects over their original budget.

Here are three very different examples.

Crossrail, The Elizabeth line has had since opening in December 2018

Crossrail, a train line That was meant to be through the centre of London - open in December 2018. But not to be expected after a series of delays, The Line is fully open to mid-2022.

The service, between Berkshire and Essex, through Central London , is now set to Cost £18. 25bn - More Than £2bn over the original budget.

Although The Work was completed on the 26 miles of new tunnels in 2015, The Project was hit by software problems with the new signal system.

at The same time, The Work on The Bond Street and Whitechapel stations has taken much longer than originally planned. Crossrail, said Bond Street opening had been delayed "because of the design and delivery challenges".

For example, which had to be replaced.

Last year, a report by The Commons Public Accounts Committee Found an "unacceptable" lack of accountability about the delays, although The Department for transport declined to assert it. to change

Universal credit IT system

Universal credit, the government's plan, benefits system by replacing six existing payments, has suffered a number of early setbacks.

These included an IT system to cope with the fight and was prone to crash.

In 2013, The National Audit Office (Nao ), which examined The Public expenditure of the Parliament - almost three-quarters of the costs for the establishment of universal credit, the IT system, with significant sums written off.

A problem with the IT system, characterized by the Nao , was That it was fraud, the identity of potential advantage. This meant That the employees had to perform several manual checks, which took up a lot of time.

the problems with the IT system led to the displacement of the nation-wide introduction of the system.

to add £500m to the total Cost .

Scottish Parliament building, The original Cost estimate had "never had any basis in reality", so the official inquiry

The Scottish Parliament building opened its doors in 2004, with a hefty price tag.

problems around the Cost , the design and the delivery eventually led to a public inquiry, headed by Lord Fraser, with 66 witnesses.

The Building was three years later and the Cost had been estimated at £414m, More Than 10 times the original 1997.

John Campbell , the Council to Lord Fraser's inquiry, said the Scheme had suffered a management failure of "gigantic proportions", with officials, politicians, and the construction Manager all the blame.

As he in his judgment, Lord Fraser delivered said, there was no single "villain of the piece," But he was surprised the Minister had kept in The Dark about the Cost increases.

He also said it was much Too Late in The Day , before anyone appreciated the scale and complexity of the proposed design.

"It borders on the embarrassing to conclude, as I do, That virtually none of the most important questions were asked about the construction" to estimate

The first £40m "never has a basis in reality was" the quality had priority over the total Cost , The Report said.

In a Audit Scotland said the lessons must be learned. It is much bigger worry said should be taken in the selection of contracts and risk of The Project needs to be better understood.

Why government projects run into problems?

Historically, the majority of big government projects are not delivered yet seen, the promise of their original Cost -benefit analysis

The Nao blamed "over-optimism" and said That many projects are started with unrealistic assumptions about the time, costs and risks.

But this problem is unique in the UK, as Nick Davies from the Independent Institute for government think-tank.

"Nine out of 10 mega-projects around The World (where the Cost is over £1bn) will go over time and over budget," he says.

currently, 133 of large government projects, with a total volume of More Than £442bn are, according to The Institute for government

Meg Hillier , says the chair of The Public Accounts Committee, a group of deputies, which examines how the government spends public money: "There is often a lot of political pressure to be an early announcement and That means it is a bit of a back of the envelope, when It Comes to first calculations. "

Changes in Ministers and civil servants can also add to the problem, according to Mr. Davies.

"butter barrel means That you will lose know-how, especially as it takes a good six months to get up to speed," he says.

Even if the Ministers remain in the same job, projects often disappear from your Desk, once the initial decision to implementation was taken.

"If it goes wrong, it is often Too Late in The Day ," said Mrs Hillier.

"the politicians must know That if something goes wrong, earlier," she adds.

Three other expensive project show can manage the government projects better?

In an effort to combat some of these problems, the government has established, the (IPA). Experts, The Authority of supervision of the infrastructure-the delivery of major projects.

Last month, The Head of the IPA, Nick Smallwood, said there had been recent successes, such as the and, and other historical nuclear power plants.

But he also acknowledged That "".

the teaching of More people in the government, as it was of complex projects favored a solution, the Mr Smallwood. Since 2012, around 2,000 people had received training, he said.

So the IPA work has made a difference?

Mr Davies said the government departments were fairly positive about the IPA work and the advice it gives. But to make a real difference, he says, need to do governments do a better job on the lessons learnt from previous projects.

"If you know That street crossings tend to go about 10%, which can really help when It Comes to budgeting current projects," he says.

"But it is much More difficult to do this when It Comes to mega-projects, because there are so few of them. "

meg hillier, national audit office, uk government spending, hs2, infrastructure, crossrail

Source of news: bbc.com