Transport secretary Chris Grayling confirmed the deals which will see the route reach Birmingham by 2026.

Plans were also confirmed to extend the route from Birmingham to the north west, East Midlands and Yorkshire.

The winning contractors for Phase One are:

Area South

• Euston Tunnels and Approaches – SCS JV (Skanska Construction UK Ltd, Costain Ltd, STRABAG AG)
• Northolt Tunnels – SCS JV (Skanska Construction UK Ltd, Costain Ltd, STRABAG AG)

Area Central

• Chiltern Tunnels and Colne Valley Viaduct – Align JV (Bouygues Travaux Publics, VolkerFitzpatrick, Sir Robert McAlpine)
• North Portal Chiltern Tunnels to Brackley – CEK JV (Carillion Construction Ltd, Eiffage Genie Civil SA, Kier Infrastructure and Overseas Ltd)
• Brackley to South Portal of Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel – CEK JV (Carillion Construction Ltd, Eiffage Genie Civil SA, Kier Infrastructure and Overseas Ltd)

Area North

• Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel to Delta Junction and Birmingham Spur – BBV JV (Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, VINCI Construction Grands Projets, VINCI Construction UK Ltd, VINCI Construction Terrassement)
• Delta Junction to WCML Tie-In – BBV JV (Balfour Beatty Group Ltd, VINCI Construction Grands Projets, VINCI Construction UK Ltd, VINCI Construction Terrassement)

Preparatory works are already underway, with main construction work starting in 2018/19 following a period of detailed design work.

Grayling said: “This is a hugely important step in the construction of Britain’s new railway and underlines this government’s determination to deliver an economy that works for all.”

David Higgins, Chairman of HS2 Ltd, said: “This is a huge day for the HS2 project and for the country. These contracts will support 16,000 jobs here in Britain and will create opportunities for thousands of SMEs.”

In total, construction of the full HS2 route to the north-west and Yorkshire will create up to 25,000 jobs and 2,000 apprenticeships.

Balfour Beatty and VINCI said its joint venture deals were worth a combined £2.5bn.

Mark Cutler, Balfour Beatty VINCI Managing Director for HS2, said: “This iconic rail infrastructure project will create significant opportunities for the UK construction industry and will drive growth in skills, jobs and prosperity.

“We look forward to building on our successful track record delivering high profile projects, and help to engineer Britain’s second great railway age”.

Carillion said its joint venture deals with Eiffage and Kier were worth a total of £1.2bn.

It added: “These Lots will be awarded in two stages.

“Stage One will be a 16-month period to develop a design, a programme and a Target Cost for the construction of the works.

“Stage Two is the construction of the main works and this is expected to take between four and five years to complete.”

Nine consortia were shortlisted for the work in March 2016 when the total contract value was estimated at between £7.1bn – £11.8bn.

The consortia to miss out were: ASL (Acciona Infraestructuras, John Sisk & Son, Lagan Construction Group), Catalyst (Bechtel), Fusion (Morgan Sindall Construction and Infrastructure,BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman (UK), LFM (Laing O’Rourke Construction, FCC Construccion,J. Murphy and Sons) and Momentum Infrastructure (Dragados, Hochtief Infrastructure, GallifordTry Infrastructure).