The Department for Transport has announced plans for a new college to develop the skills needed to deliver Britain’s high-speed rail network. A spokesman said that it “will offer the necessary technical training to make HS2 a success and ensure that it can be built by skilled British workers.”

Ministers expect the college to be open by 2017 to coincide with the start of work on the project. The new chairman of the HS2 organisation, Sir David Higgins, said: “This country produces some of the best engineers to be found anywhere in the world. The problem is that there aren’t enough of them, and there isn’t a long enough guaranteed work-stream to keep them here, so they tend to go overseas.

“HS2 provides us with a unique chance to address both issues. The sheer length of the project means that we can offer people a rewarding career in engineering, while the multiplicity of skills required means that we will be equipping a new generation with experience at the cutting edge of technology. HS2 gives us the chance to re-balance not just the economic geography of the country but also our national skills base.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “HS2 is the biggest infrastructure project that this Government is delivering, so it is right that a large-scale investment in bricks and mortar should also come with investment in the elite skills that will help to build it. That’s why the Government is launching the first FE college in over 20 years. It will train the next generation of engineers in rail, construction and environmental studies that this country needs to prosper.”