HS2 Phase 2, which would have run from Birmingham to Manchester, has been scrapped in an announcement Rishi Sunak made in his Conservative conference speech. “Every single penny” of the £36bn funding intended for HS2 will now be put into other transport projects across the UK, according to the Prime Minister.
HS2 initially aimed to create highspeed railways between London and major cities in the Midlands and the North of England. This would have reduced journey times significantly, created more space on the rail network and more jobs outside of London. Much work has been done on Phase 1, between London and Birmingham.
However, the project has long experienced delays, spiralling costs and cuts. In 2021, the Leeds leg was scrapped by the government in a decision to upgrade existing HS2 routes. Questions arose about whether HS2 would even reach Euston in central London as demolition work was paused amid rising costs. The Prime Minister has confirmed that it would, but a source has disclosed that its completion would be contingent on a private investment.
One of the main concerns of the project, the biggest of its kind in Europe, was the growing costs. As of February 2023, £27.4bn has been spent on HS2, £22.5bn on Phase 1 and £2.3bn on Phase 2, including the purchase of more than 400 properties between Birmingham and Manchester. HS2’s environmental impact was another major cause for concern. Although the project claimed it would provide “zero carbon rail travel” and create new wildlife habitats along its route, Wildlife Trusts said the project will “destroy huge swathes of irreplaceable natural habitat and important protected wildlife sites’’.
Since Rishi Sunak announced the redirection of money from HS2 to road schemes, Greenpeace has said that this “shows how little he really cares about tackling air pollution, traffic and cutting carbon emissions”.
Shows how little he really cares about tackling air pollution, traffic and cutting carbon emissions.
In labelling HS2 an England and Wales project, the UK government had claimed that HS2 would boost connectivity and reliability across the UK, despite it not crossing into Wales.
A station at Crewe was set apart as an interchange for North Wales, which is why Wales did not receive any consequential funding. With the project being scrapped, the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, said that the “flimsy case” for Wales not receiving extra funding from the project “collapses completely”.
Rishi Sunak has said that £1bn that was earmarked for HS2 will be used to electrify the North Wales mainline. While the Welsh government welcomed the funding, it described it as “a finger in the air figure”.
In his speech at the Tory conference, the Prime Minister also expressed his desire to phase out the sale of cigarettes, which he says would be the “biggest public health intervention in a generation”.