In July 2026, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee raised serious concerns that Northern Powerhouse Rail could repeat some of the mistakes made on HS2.
The project has a £45 billion funding cap, yet questions remain about the precise scope, routes, capacity requirements and infrastructure needed to deliver the intended benefits.
The Public Accounts Committee questioned how a reliable budget could be established before the complete programme had been sufficiently designed, scoped and costed.
This illustrates a familiar problem for procurement: organisations establish budgets and delivery dates before properly understanding their requirements.
Suppliers are subsequently expected to price uncertain work, sometimes with insufficient information about technical interfaces, site conditions or operational expectations.
I believe a budget is not a substitute for a specification. Before tendering, organisations must establish a sufficiently developed scope, identify uncertainties and allocate risks to the parties best placed to manage them.
Poor scope definition at the outset creates the conditions for variations, additional costs, disputes and delays throughout the contract life cycle.
Source: Northern Powerhouse Rail: MPs warn of HS2 risks. The Guardian
These issues and more are covered in my Developing Effective Specifications and Scopes of Work course on 14th December 2026. This popular course is also available as an in-house tailored event.
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