There must be a point at which HS2 is just too expensive

The CBI and BCC wring their hands at a budget overrun of 30bn - but then keep on insisting it must be built

One thing as predictable as an increase in the projected cost of building HS2 is the response from business lobby groups. Sure enough, as the high-speed railway was reported last week to be hurtling towards a potential cost overrun of almost 30bn, trade bodies barely paused to consider this astonishing figure and instead insisted that HS2 should be built anyway.

To be scrupulously accurate, the CBI nodded to the idea that "taxpayers' money should always be spent wisely" and that HS2 should "strive" to stay on budget. And the British Chambers of Commerce opined that "no public project should be written a blank cheque", a notably abstract form of words.