HS2 must move ahead, say business chiefs

A DAMNING report from the National Audit Office (NAO) suggests the business case for high-speed rail project HS2 has not been made.

 

There is no evidence that the £33bn scheme linking Birmingham and London would lead to economic growth the NAO’s report suggests.

 

The NAO further suggested that the project has an estimated £3.3bn funding gap and said the timetable for the planning phase of the project – with work due to start in 2016-17 – is “challenging”.

 

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the NAO’s conclusions were based on old data.

And business leaders say the report shouldn’t lead to a delay in progressing HS2.

The NAO said: “In presenting its case for investment in the project, the Department of Transport (DfT) has poorly articulated the strategic need for a transformation in rail capacity and how High Speed 2 will help generate regional economic growth.”

House of Commons Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said: “The DfT has produced a business case that is clearly not up to scratch. Some of their (the DfT’s) assumptions are just ludicrous.

“There is virtually no evidence in this business case to support claims that HS2 will deliver regional economic growth, one of the key aims and justifications for this project.

“We have been told that it will deliver around 100,000 new jobs but there is no evidence that all these jobs would not have been created anyway. The department has also set an extremely ambitious timetable for the project, with no room for mistakes. Past experience does not fill us with confidence in this optimism.”

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said he “did not accept the NAO’s core conclusion”.

“The case for HS2 is clear. Without it the key rail routes connecting London, the Midlands and the North will be overwhelmed,” he said.

“We are not building HS2 simply because the computer says ‘yes’. We are building it because it is the right thing to do to make Britain a stronger and more prosperous place.”