A leaked Government document suggests that £35bn could be saved by abandoning the Birmingham-Manchester leg of HS2, which has already cost £2.3bn
Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are in talks on axing the Manchester HS2 leg, according to a leaked document seen by the Independent.
Intended to link London with the midlands and the north of England, HS2 has already been heavily scaled back from the original plans over the years, with connections to York and Leeds discarded.
Concerns have been raised about HS2’s feasibility for years
“Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable. There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable. The project may need re-scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed,” said a recent IPA report.
A spokesman for the prime minister responded that the government “is committed to HS2, to the project. I can’t comment on the speculation that’s a result of a photograph. We are, as you know, looking at the re-phasing of the work in the best interests of passengers and taxpayers.”
Northern voices were outraged
“The Government needs to kill the speculation and make its intentions clear, and it ought to commit clearly and unambiguously to delivering the project as planned,” said a spokesman for the High Speed Rail Group. “The 30,000 people delivering HS2 deserve this. Our future generations deserve this. The North and Midlands deserve this.”
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said any decision to curtail plans would cause “serious damage” to the Government’s relationship with “both Northern-based businesses and inward investors” and said “it makes no sense to stop now”.
“Cancelling phase 2b would also make it impossible to improve east-west connectivity across the North as promised in the Integrated Rail Plan,” he said. “It would remove the most critical remaining section of Northern Powerhouse Rail between Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport, which is vital for getting passengers from Liverpool across the Pennines.
“Our country’s inability to deliver infrastructure, whether it’s hospitals or rail lines, is a huge problem for raising productivity long term and our global reputation. The shadow chancellor has already committed to treating day-to-day spending differently to capital spending to support long-term economic growth – the Government should do the same.”
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s take on the news was scathing, decrying the treatment of northern passengers as “second-class citizens”:
It’s coming up 10 years since Osborne’s “Northern Powerhouse” speech and the Tories are set to scrap the last of his rail pledges.
The result?
The southern half of England gets a modern rail system and the North left with Victorian infrastructure.
Levelling up?
My a**e.
— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) September 14, 2023
