A scathing analysis of HS2 by the deputy chairman of a Government-commissioned review into the controversial rail project has been slammed by a leading Northern business figure.

In a no-holds-barred attack Lord Berkeley, who is supporting Douglas Oakervee in the much-anticipated Oakervee Review, accused HS2 Ltd of “fiddling the figures” for the high-speed rail scheme and said that Parliament had been “seriously misled” over its spiralling costs.

He said independent analysis put the figure for HS2 at £107.92 billion – well above the latest estimates by HS2 Ltd, the private company in charge of the project, and more than double the initial figure of £50bn: a situation he said left the project “completely out of control financially”.

The overrun meant the project needed “looking at again”, Lord Berkeley argued, adding: “For me, HS2, if it were almost cancelled except for the bit in the Northern Powerhouse area and replaced by about half the investment on local services, local rail network in the north and the Midlands, it would be much better for everybody who lives up there.”

But the outburst has been condemned by director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Henri Murison.

He said: “Rather than listening to our businesses, our communities, and our civic leaders, who have passionately and consistently made the case for why the North both needs and deserves HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, Lord Berkeley has vented his frustration about the fact that his prejudices against HS2 were rightly challenged during the Oakervee Review.

“He has therefore produced these unbalanced comments which ignore the fact that the benefits of HS2 have been significantly underestimated.

“Cutting back on an infrastructure project that has the chance to change the country for the better once and for all would be a major error and a missed golden opportunity.”

Lord Berkeley had threatened to deliver his own analysis of the project following the leak of the initial findings of the Oakervee Review to The Times in November, which concluded HS2 was delivered in full.

The review was to be published by the end of the October but was delayed when the General Election was called due to the political sensitives around HS2.

Elaborating on his hard-hitting 70-page dissenting report in which he says HS2 is the “wrong and expensive solution” to closing the North-South economic divide, Lord Berkeley said: “I believe that Parliament has been misled because the costs were clearly known to the department, and I believe ministers, three or four years ago – there's a lot of evidence to that.

“This project is probably two or three times over budget even before the construction has started.

“Saving £50bn at this stage, I think, is quite something that we'll want to look at.”

Calls for HS2 to be delivered in full have continued to be made by business leaders and politicians in Cumbria and across the North amid fears it could be halted after the first phase connecting London and Birmingham due to the spiralling costs.

Any HS2 link to Cumbria would fall in the third phase of work, with HS2 trains using the existing West Coast Mainline north of Wigan to the final destination in Glasgow.

Under current proposals there are no plans for a stop in the county – although calls continue to be made for a stop in Carlisle.

Cumbria Chamber of Commerce has stressed it will only support the project if stops are introduced in the city and at Oxenholme Lake District and Penrith stations.

However, organisations including the Taxpayers Alliance and free market think tank the Adam Smith Institute has dismissed HS2 as a “massive white elephant” and called on investment to be made on improving sections of the existing rail network, including the West Coast Mainline.

In response to the latest attack from Lord Berkeley a spokesman for HS2 Ltd said: “There have been many individual views expressed about the HS2 project, however we await the publication of the Government's official review.

“HS2 Ltd has provided full cooperation to Mr Oakervee and his review team, and if the Government decides to proceed, we have a highly skilled team in place ready to build Britain's new railway.

“Investment in a state-of-the-art high-speed line is critical for the UK's low-carbon transport future, will provide much needed rail capacity up and down the country, and is integral to rail projects in the North and Midlands which will help rebalance the UK economy.”