LARGE salaries which are being paid to some senior HS2 managers have been defended by the transport secretary, who said the scheme deserved the best people.

Patrick McLoughlin was under fire after it had been revealed that Simon Kirby of Network Rail will receive an annual salary of £750,000 when he moves to HS2 Ltd, where he will be chief executive in charge of the construction of Phase 1 between London and the West Midlands.

He will be earning more than six times as much as present CEO Alison Munro, who is staying with the company and will concentrate on developing the details of Phase 2, which will take High Speed trains onwards to Manchester and Leeds via two spurs from Lichfield, just north of Birmingham.

Incoming executive chairman David Higgins will be paid £591,000.

Mr McLoughlin told the BBC: "We need to attract the best people we possibly can, so we are going for the best engineers in the world to engineer this project. It is a large salary but I am rather pleased that engineers, rather than bankers, can be seen to get big rewards for delivering what will be very important pieces of national infrastructure."

Meanwhile, Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls may have signalled a weakening of support for the scheme from his party again, after he sounded new warnings about containing costs.

David Higgins' first main task is a thorough review of the project, with a view to reducing its likely cost and also accelerating the construction timetable. He will also examine whether construction can begin in the north much sooner.

His conclusions are due to be sent to the transport secretary next month.