Never have I seen such a concentrated level of misery among decent, hard-working people — none of whom asked for the chaos HS2 has unleashed
Source - Daily Telegraph - 18/11/21
The Prime Minister’s announcement of the Integrated Rail Plan has unveiled a stark truth behind one of this country’s most disastrous megaprojects, HS2. Having begun with an utterly hollow business case, the reality of this £200 billion railway is now clear – it will not deliver for the very people it was supposedly intended for. With the Eastern Leg scaled back, the entire project is left hanging on borrowed time.
It is not too late to scrutinise properly the seemingly endless pot of taxpayers’ money devoted to HS2, or to question seriously whether it is worth going ahead with at all. The Government must come forward with what the severed leg means for the overall cost.
Much has happened since the original proposals for the railway were tabled over a decade ago, most notably the coronavirus pandemic. Attitudes to travel have changed fundamentally. We all know that the project’s utility is almost wholly based on purported efficiency gains for businesses operating beyond our biggest cities, yet those efficiency gains have since been met not by a multi-billion pound railway, but by Zoom. We must not let ourselves slip into a false reality dominated by outdated thinking and outdated proposals.
This warrants a wholesale review. We simply cannot sustain the extraordinary level of spending HS2 requires for such negligible gain. The cost has almost quadrupled from the original estimate of £55.7 billion.
Covid-related costs alone have added around £1.7 billion to the bill, with almost half of that associated with Phase One. The National Audit Office notes that 50 per cent of the costs for Phase One are still based on HS2 Ltd’s benchmark estimates rather than costs agreed with industry, so these could rise again. The latest revised cost estimates also assume HS2 Ltd will be able to find £2.8 billion in savings – yet it’s had to dip substantially into its contingency budget.
In reality, HS2 will end up costing this country a great deal, without delivering for the Midlands or North as originally intended. The completion date for Phase One has already slipped by over four years to 2033. Any and all sections of Phase Two will have to wait even longer. We Conservatives need to Build Back Better now – not in 15 years time.
Millions of people in the North want and deserve to have a much better regional transport system than what is currently on offer, but it must be delivered at least this side of 2030 and without sacrificing the livelihoods of the millions living in its path, who have had their homes and businesses gambled by the state at will.
The sheer amount of destruction that this white elephant has wreaked on the lives of my constituents, and many more up and down the Phase One route of the line, is astonishing. Never have I seen such a concentrated level of misery among decent, hard-working people – none of whom asked for the daily disruption they are now facing.
Whether it be the excessive noise and vibration levels that have shaken houses; the plethora of roads falling apart beneath the low-loaders and dump trucks plying their way around otherwise peaceful villages; or the enormous loss of endless hedgerows, ancient woodland and protected habitats that I and my constituents cherish so dearly. This is a dangerous assault on innocent communities, some of which will never look the same again, thanks to HS2.
I cannot and will not stand by as the destruction continues, and I would not wish this misery on anyone else. Nor will I ever give up hope.
The human cost alone is enough to warrant the project’s scrapping entirely. It is unviable, unaffordable and undeliverable. It is unfit for the new reality in which we all live, and the wrong path to take in improving our country's infrastructure. We must focus on regional and local projects, as the Integrated Rail Plan does, which can actually deliver real opportunities for people.
My constituents, like the vast majority of Britons, are proud of the communities and regions in which they live and work. Let us therefore focus on delivering our levelling-up agenda in a meaningful way.
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