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The seat on Britain’s High Speed ​​​​​​2 rail project will come down in the spring, the government said on Tuesday, hours after the Financial Times reported that the price had risen by another £9bn.

Sir Jon Thompson is leave his post almost two years after taking the helm in February 2023, having previously sat on HS2 Ltd’s board for two years.

A rail industry executive said Thompson’s departure was not a surprise as ministers had appointed a new HS2 chief executive and ordered a review of its remit and costs.

Thompson recently took a position on the board of Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, owner of UK retailer Sports Direct. News of Heaven It was reported last month that he was in line to become chair of the Frasers in 2025.

But the government’s announcement comes hours after the FT reported that an official report due to be published later on Tuesday would show an internal estimate that HS2 will be worth between £54bn and £66bn at 2019 prices.

That cost estimate, which the government has disputed, would mark a jump from the previous figure of between £49bn and £57bn a year ago. The new high figure is equivalent to around £80bn at today’s prices.

Heidi Alexander, transport secretary, thanked Thompson for his “work over almost four years to advance Britain’s biggest rail project”, adding: “He has provided strong leadership during challenging times time for the project.”

Last year, the Conservative government cut the project in half, leaving only one section from London to Birmingham.

Thompson led HS2 as executive chair for 12 months when the project did not have a permanent chief executive, before incumbent Mark Wild arrived.

The ministers ordered him to carry out a review of the project including the creation of a new, detailed cost estimate.

Alexander said on Tuesday that he expected Wild to “stick to budgets and schedules and deliver the line as cost-effectively as possible for passengers and taxpayers”.

Wild will seek to renegotiate some contracts which officials have suggested have left HS2 “in a barrel” in its dealings with suppliers and contractors.

Thompson recently expressed his frustrations with the planning and bureaucratic issues that have contributed to the rising cost of HS2.

He said the most egregious example is the need to build a £100mn bat thrown over the rails to protect a rare species from being hit by passing trains along the Buckinghamshire woodland.

“I can give you many examples. That’s my favorite, because it includes this bat. . . and people then have this simplistic way of saying: ‘Oh, you’re over budget.’ Well, yes, OK but do people think about the bat? ”, Thompson said at an industry conference in November.

HS2 has been plagued by delays and cost overruns since it was given the go-ahead by ministers more than a decade ago, with management blaming issues including cost-over contracts, an increase of tunneling and complications of ground conditions.

The price tag for the line between London and northern England was set at £33bn when it was approved in 2012.