§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list in the OFFICIAL REPORT the changes in the estimated cost of the Channel Tunnel during the last decade and give the latest projected cost of the scheme.
§ Mr. CroslandThe cost of building a Channel tunnel was estimated in the White Paper published in September 1963 (Cmnd. 2137) at £143 million in 1962 prices. In 1966 this estimate was 449W revised to £171 million in then current prices. The present project began in 1971 and was estimated in a Green Paper (Cmnd. 5256) at £366 million in January 1973 prices. The latest estimate was given in the 1973 White Paper (Cmnd. 5430) as £468 million in 1973 prices or £846 million in outturn prices; items of increases over the 1972 estimate were identified. Estimates of both cost and revenue are being revised in the current phase of the project.