HS2 Works "Not Synchronised"

[Grimsby town]

If the consultants are telling the truth where is the truth to fantasy gap? Is there a lack of professional knowledge on the government side, with decisions on whether to ignore the consultants being taken by career CS or politicians? Otherwise it is in HS2 as the client creating a fantasy for the DfT/politicians.
Where should the challenge be - some kind of audit that the truth is flowing from reality to decision making?

There's definitely not enough experience in the public sector. It's pretty accepted that the civil service is too generalist with people being constantly rotated across departments. There's definitely an over reliance on consultants too and not enough public sector staff to engage with the consultants effectively. Obviously consultancies are business and try to sell their services and look for more work.

Its difficult to have serious conversations about the pros and cons of relying on consultants because there's a lot of misconceptions about transport/engineering consultancy. I'm not far off 10 years experience and I'm certainly not on a six figure salary. If you look at the larger transport authorities such as TfL or TfGM, they publish their salaries and they're pretty much in line with what consultants earn. Local authorities tend to pay less but also have less contracted hours. A big problem with transport planning/engineering is that the pay isn't great and there's tendancy for staff to be poached by better paying industries.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Management consultancies charge the more excessive rates which is ridiculous since their services are purely advice with no means of holding them to account.

Highly-paid consultancy firms like Bechtel were hired to sort out the delivery of West Coast Modernisation (WCRM).
I got the impression they were properly accountable to the SRA and the DfT, and delivered an impressive project by the end.
Consultancy SNC-Lavelin was hired to be DfT's Operator of Last Resort, and seemed to run LNER and the rest effectively.
Not all contractors are useless or parasites, or not worth the money.
It's a management (DfT) decision whether to hire them or not.
The consultancies were also where some critical BR expertise went on privatisation and after.

 

[Xavi]

Highly-paid consultancy firms like Bechtel were hired to sort out the delivery of West Coast Modernisation (WCRM).
I got the impression they were properly accountable to the SRA and the DfT, and delivered an impressive project by the end.
Consultancy SNC-Lavelin was hired to be DfT's Operator of Last Resort, and seemed to run LNER and the rest effectively.
Not all contractors are useless or parasites, or not worth the money.
It's a management (DfT) decision whether to hire them or not.
The consultancies were also where some critical BR expertise went on privatisation and after.

The consultancies you list are not management consultants, they are traditional engineering/ construction consultants which have a long history and continue to provide good value.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

If the consultants are telling the truth where is the truth to fantasy gap? Is there a lack of professional knowledge on the government side, with decisions on whether to ignore the consultants being taken by career CS or politicians? Otherwise it is in HS2 as the client creating a fantasy for the DfT/politicians.
Where should the challenge be - some kind of audit that the truth is flowing from reality to decision making?

DfT employs its own consultants to provide advice and I suspect this where the difference of opinion over what the outturn costs are is between DfT and HS2 Ltd. HS2 Ltd also has its own roster of consultants costing over 40m according to its 23/24 annual report let alone the night on 2000 full time HS2 staff to oversee the project. Then on top of this there is the board of directors who are paid to oversee delivery of the project who prime role was to prevent the fiasco that has unfolded here. This is on the Torys for sure but if i was Heidi Alexander i would be looking to refresh the DfT leadership of HS2 as well as they've aided and abetted here and its all too easy to hide everything as the client changing their minds.

 

[MP33]

I received a difficult telephone from Bectel, who were asked to troubleshoot the Jubilee line extension. Someone in another location received the same, and it appeared that we were well down a long list of people to have their bottoms kicked.

 

[Harpo]

its all too easy to hide everything as the client changing their minds.

Quite. HS2 must surely set some kind of UK record by £-value for scope changes made during the delivery phase, for both added and removed work content.