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Financial Times:
KPMG defends key HS2 report

6 November 2013

However, concerns about the KPMG report, surfaced when the FT revealed misgivings about it among some of the government's own advisers. Dan Graham, a professor of statistical modelling at Imperial College London, told the committee of MPs on Tuesday ''I don't think the statistical work is reliable''. Henry Overman, professor of economic geography at the London School of Economics and a former adviser on HS2, went further. ''They [KPMG] apply this procedure which is essentially made up, which provides them with an estimate. It is something that really shouldn't be done in a situation where we are trying to inform public debate using statistical analysis.'' Prof Overman said he thought the £15bn estimate could be overstated by a factor of six to eight.

This article was published by the Financial Times online on November 6, 2013
Link to article here

Related publications
HS2: assessing the costs and benefits, Henry Overman. Article in CentrePiece Volume 16, Issue 3, Winter 2012

Related links
Henry Overman webpage
Globalisation Programme webpage
SERC website

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