Latest news with #StephenCresswell
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
HS2 whistleblower sacked after warning of soaring costs
A whistleblower who was fired after accusing HS2 bosses of fraud after they ignored his warnings over the true cost of the project has won more than £300,000 in compensation. Stephen Cresswell, a risk management expert, lost his job working on the high-speed rail line after he repeatedly raised concerns that costs were being 'actively misrepresented'. The consultant was told by one HS2 executive to 'disregard' scenarios he had prepared which forecast a 'significant' increase in the cost of building the railway line, an employment tribunal in Croydon heard. In one case, a forecast construction cost was potentially £100 million larger than bosses wanted to admit, the tribunal heard. Mark Wild, HS2's chief executive, told MPs last month that the final cost of the London-to-Birmingham route could exceed £100 billion. After HS2 eventually admitted Mr Cresswell had attempted to blow the whistle on five separate occasions during 2021 and 2022 before being let go, he was awarded £319,070 in damages. 'In my opinion, HS2 is not an organisation that should be trusted with public money,' Mr Cresswell said after the employment tribunal's ruling on Monday. 'HS2 is destroying taxpayer value; a properly functioning administration would mothball the programme and undertake a full independent investigation,' he added. Contract terminated Mr Cresswell's contract was terminated on Sept 30 2022 after he tried to inform senior managers about what was going on. Tribunal judges heard that he first raised concerns about fraudulent under-estimation of costs in November 2021. Under-estimating costs would mean contractors could start construction works and then demand extra funding, over and above the planned budget, to complete them. Mr Cresswell had been hired in spring 2021 to estimate the costs of Phase 2 of HS2, which was intended to run between Birmingham and Crewe. This planned section of the line was eventually cancelled in October 2023 by Rishi Sunak, the then prime minister, because of its spiralling costs. Two years before that decision, however, Mr Cresswell was unsuccessfully trying to blow the whistle on fraudulent goings-on within HS2. In November 2021 he emailed senior colleagues with details of a number of potential scenarios that looked at what would happen if there was a change in 'inputs', meaning the price of materials, labour and other resources. Those colleagues were Paul Seller, Graham Ramsden, Georgina O'Reilly and Shah Ahmed, the hearing was told. 'In response, Paul Seller stated that two of the scenarios significantly increased the forecasted costs and should therefore be disregarded,' the tribunal said. '[Mr Cresswell] rejected this suggestion, since disregarding the two scenarios significantly increased the forecasted costs and would be actively misrepresenting the project in order to secure ongoing funding,' the tribunal said. Mr Seller, who has since left HS2, was a project controls director in charge of keeping costs down. Put in an 'uncomfortable position' The following March, he sent an email to Mr Seller and Mr Ramsden in which he said: 'I find myself in a very uncomfortable position, having a professional view of the Phase 2 [costs] forecast that is very different to the HS2 documented position. 'The implications of my viewpoint would be that the Phase 2 will very likely have costs outside the funding envelope, and that HS2 is outside its stated risk appetite position to 'only tolerate low levels of risk to the achievement of programme targets'. 'The cost ranges for planned works arising from this approach are massive. The largest is for cuttings and embankments which is showing a potential saving of up to £209million and a potential cost increase of up to £348million – a range of £557million. 'In contrast the largest maximum exposure in the register is £235million and the majority of the risk items have a maximum exposure of less than £50million. 'I appreciate there are reasons for this incongruence, including but not limited to, different individuals being responsible for risk, opportunity and cost uncertainty and the compressed timescales for the analysis; however having such a massive range left without investigation is not defendable.' Suggested cost savings of 30 per cent were, he said, 'implausible'. As a result of his comments HS2 did not consider Mr Cresswell for two consultancy job vacancies in July 2022, the tribunal heard. It then terminated his contract with effect from the end of September that year. In the same month he forwarded a memo detailing his fears to Alan Foster, HS2's chief financial officer, judges heard. After losing his job, Mr Cresswell claimed he had been denied other work as a result of blowing the whistle on the company. The project to build a high speed line between London, the Midlands and the North was first announced in 2010 by Philip Hammond, the then transport secretary. Ever since then it has been beset by controversies, including the construction of a £100million tunnel to protect bats – even though experts have suggested that it will not work.
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Whistleblower sacked after accusing HS2 bosses of fraud for ignoring warnings about the true cost of the project wins over £300,000
A 'brave' whistleblower who lost his job after accusing HS2 executives of fraud over the true cost of the controversial project has won more than £300,000 in compensation. Risk management expert Stephen Cresswell repeatedly raised concerns that the cost of the high speed rail line - which could end up landing the taxpayer with a bill of more than £80billion - was being 'actively misrepresented'. The consultant was told by one HS2 executive to 'disregard' scenarios he had prepared which forecast a 'significant' increase in the price to the public, an employment tribunal heard. As a result, Mr Cresswell warned that he found himself in a 'very uncomfortable position' of having a 'very different' view to the high speed rail line company's 'documented position'. The tribunal heard that in a meeting with bosses he said 'fraud had been committed because he understood fraud to be making false statement so as to secure a benefit'. After losing his job, Mr Cresswell took HS2 to an employment tribunal, claiming he had his contract terminated and been denied other work as a result of blowing the whistle. After the rail firm admitted that he had not given adequate levels of protection following his disclosures he has now been awarded £319,070 in damages. In response, campaigners said it was not to late for Labour to consider scrapping high speed rail over years of 'catastrophic mishandling'. But HS2 bosses said the firm is 'now under new leadership', adding that it had not accepted Mr Cresswell's allegations. The project to build a high speed line between London, the Midlands and the North was announced in 2010 by then Conservative Transport Secretary Philip Hammond. But ever since it has been beset by controversy amid ballooning costs - including spending £100million on a tunnel for bats. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Cresswell later accused HS2 of having deployed a 'classic playbook' used on major taxpayer-funded construction projects, by holding back accurate cost predictions to ensure government kept money flowing in. Following his tribunal win he said: 'In my opinion HS2 is not an organisation that should be trusted with public money. 'HS2 is destroying taxpayer value, a properly functioning administration would mothball the programme and undertake a full independent investigation.' Today John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'HS2 has rightly become a byword for incompetence and scandal given the catastrophic mishandling of the project by one of Britain's most hopeless and profligate quangos. 'One of the biggest problems was an embarrassing underestimate of the costs and overestimate of the benefits, despite warnings from industry experts and campaigners including this brave whistleblower. 'Even at this late stage Labour ministers should consider abolishing the project entirely.' HS2 Ltd says investigations into Mr Cresswell's claims found no evidence of fraud or illegal activity. In a statement it said: 'HS2 Ltd has accepted that Mr Cresswell raised concerns as a whistleblower and was not then given the appropriate level of protection when his contract came to an end. 'This is regrettable and HS2 Ltd is committed to ensuring that staff and others can raise concerns in confidence. 'This admission does not mean that HS2 Ltd accepts the specific allegations around cost estimating practices raised by Mr Cresswell. 'However, the company is under now under new leadership and a comprehensive review of its skills and structures is being carried out.' Last month a DfT spokesperson said: 'We take all whistleblowing allegations seriously and it is important that individuals are given appropriate levels of protection, which clearly was not the case for Mr Cresswell. 'There is a lot of hard work still to do to get this project back on track, which is why we are overseeing a total reset of HS2, and reviewing the programme's costs, schedule and culture.'
