HS2 chairman David Higgins is facing a select committee bashing over the state of his beleaguered white elephant – and MPs would be forgiven for asking if he has taken his eye off the ball. Higgins is paid a £240,000 salary by the taxpayer for a three day week at HS2. What does he do the rest of his time? He is also the chairman of Gatwick Airport, a nice little earner and hardly a job that requires no attention. He is a director at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, where his roles also include chairman of the bank’s Remuneration Committee and sitting on the Risk Committee. Kerching. Job number four is as a “senior adviser” at fund manager Global Infrastructure Partners. Higgins is no doubt enjoying George Osborne levels of success in the private sector. The Transport select committee will be interested to know why his very well remunerated job working for the British taxpayer is going so badly by contrast…
HS2 chairman David Higgins faces a showdown with the Transport select committee over the £170 million cancelled contract debacle. Transport committee chair Louise Ellman says she wants a session on the fiasco “as soon as possible”. Pressure is beginning to be applied to the beleaguered HS2 board, which has been hit by a spate of recent high profile departures, including of its director-general David Prout, strategy director Alistair Kirk and information chief James Findlay. Rumours have been swirling that Higgins – who has just taken on a second job as chairman of Gatwick Airport – may not be long for the world of HS2. Select committee members will want to ask if HS2’s double jobbing boss took his eye off the ball…
With Chris Grayling rejecting suggestions that the £170 million tender should be re-run, US construction giant Bechtel is the favourite to take the contract. So it is unfortunate that the weekend papers revealed links between Bechtel and a middleman named in British courts as involved in corruption in Abu Dhabi. One to watch. For the £170 million HS2 contract to be mired in sleaze allegations all over again would heap further pressure on the project…
