HS2 a statement of the country’s competitiveness – Heseltine
FORMER deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine has warned that future generations would judge those in power today harshly if they failed to deliver the new HS2 high-speed rail link.
He has said the UK should have faith in the £50bn HS2 rail project, which will link Birmingham and London via 225mph trains from 2026 with additional links to Leeds and Manchester due to be operational six years later.
In a speech today to the Royal Town Planning Institute the senior Conservative will say “HS2 is about our country’s competitiveness for a half century or more”.
He will ask: “If we hadn’t built Canary Wharf, how many of the jobs there would be in Frankfurt instead?”
Lord Heseltine will also say that it is about sharing economic growth that for too long has been concentrated on London and the South East.”
Lord Heseltine, who has worked closely with the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership on issues to do with giving the regions more control of their destinies as part of an overall economic growth plan, will also cast doubt on some of the cost-benefit analyses carried out so far for the project.
“Let me leave the ladies and gentlemen of the slide rules. They know no more and no less than you and me,” he will say.
And, calling for the project to be accelerated, he is due to say: “All over the world governments are making decisions about a future which they cannot predict but in which they believe.”
A recent report by accountancy firm KPMG suggested the new line could be worth £15bn to the UK economy – with Greater London and the West Midlands the biggest beneficiaries.
The accountants behind the report and transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin are due to appear before MPs to defend their economic justifications for the project.
