PARLIAMENT was “seriously misled” over the costs of the high-speed rail project HS2 by the government and a private firm, a damning report finds.

Former Labour transport spokesman Lord Berkeley, who is deputy chairman of the project’s review panel, deems the project to be poor value for money.

He cited independent analysis which estimates the cost to be at least £107.92 billion.

Initially expected to cost £50.1bn, the latest estimates for the network by HS2 Ltd stand at £88bn.

Mr Berkeley said: “Parliament needs one firm figure for the funding envelope at the time when it gives formal approval to cancel or amend a project without wasting large sums of money.”

He said he wrote his “dissenting” report because he disagreed with some conclusions of the draft report overseen by Doug Oakervee, the former HS2 Ltd chairman appointed by Boris Johnson to lead the review into whether and how the project should continue.

Mr Berkeley said information disclosed to his review panel raised “very serious concerns” about the competence of HM Treasury, the Department for Transport, and HS2 Ltd.

The “unnecessarily high” cost of HS2 was due to plans for trains faster than those in Europe or Japan and for 18 trains an hour in each direction, he said.

Mr Berkeley claimed that a country the size of England does not need trains to be as fast, and that HS2 Ltd admits that no other such high-speed line is able to run more than 14 trains an hour each way.

An HS2 Ltd spokesman said: “There have been many individual views expressed about the HS2 project, however we await the publication of the government’s official review.”