High Speed 2

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The MP expresses disappointment over the lack of attendance from key ministers, criticises HS2's direction and impact on northern England, raises questions about leaked photographs reflecting government positions, and challenges the Government’s commitment to reaching Manchester by 2041.

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MP questions whether starting HS2 at Old Oak Common would realise full benefits, noting that the area lacks capacity to handle all services and that even with HS2 to Manchester, west coast mainline will not have sufficient capacity in coming decades.

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MP criticises HS2 as an overpriced project, noting Spain's successful track record in installing high-speed rail at a fraction of the cost. He asks when HS2 infrastructure will reach Scotland and Wales.

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MP reminds government of HS2’s importance to Northern Powerhouse Rail connectivity for Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Hull.

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Will the Minister give an unambiguous answer to this question: is this Government still committed to building HS2 to Manchester from Euston? People in the north need to know whether they are being abandoned, because it looks like that to me from press reports, which have not been made up by journalists.

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Even when this project had arms and legs and eyebrows going across the whole country, it was always accepted that the business case was very weak and that, as a nation, we cannot really afford it. I hope the Government do scrap HS2 north of Birmingham and save many more communities from the human misery that my constituents endure every day of the week from the construction.

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Frankly, it is a real shame that we have to put up with an ill-prepared office junior instead of the boss, because these are really significant decisions. Let us be clear: the case for HS2 was always flawed, but ballooning construction costs and changing business travel patterns post covid now make it unsustainable.

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My constituents have been through absolute misery for 13 years now, ever since the hybrid Bill first started and they tried to defend their own area.

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HS2 faces death by a thousand cuts. We Liberal Democrats are firmly behind HS2, but the Government’s catastrophic handling of the project’s delivery has meant that the Infrastructure and Projects Authority now rates it as “unachievable”. What will the Government do to fix this mess?

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We had a meeting about HS2 with the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman), a few weeks ago.

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When will High Speed 2 arrive in Manchester?

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As a member of the Bill Committee, I have had the good fortune to visit a number of sites involved in the construction of HS2.

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The Minister said that the Government are hugely investing in the north.

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May I remind the House, journalists and the Chairman of the Transport Committee that the area under discussion is beyond phase 1?

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HS2 has just applied for planning permission for works to enable Old Oak Common station to serve as a temporary terminus.

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In order to unlock economic growth and power up northern productivity, our region must have improved connectivity.

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Can the Minister tell my constituents when they will be able to board a high-speed train from Manchester to London?

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HS2 is behaving outrageously by not paying my Stafford constituents on time.

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The Government’s excuse for denying Wales its fair share of HS2 funding is that the phase 2 connection at Crewe would cut journey times between north Wales and London. Welsh taxpayers are funding this fiasco and getting nothing back. Will the Minister admit that HS2 is an England-only railway project and that his Government owe Wales money?

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It is sometimes right to ask our constituents to take local pain for national gain, but does my hon. Friend agree that the national gain of HS2 has always been argued to result from its being a network of high-speed rail lines, not a single line? If it is a single line, are we not in danger of the national gain being extraordinarily limited, and the local pain, including to my constituents, being extraordinarily extensive and long lasting?

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Is this not an example of a very bad national planning process? HS2 does not link up with HS1; all the pain and disruption around Euston will have been for naught; and if it is completed as far as Birmingham, all it will do is join an already overcrowded rail network. Surely we have either a high-speed network or nothing at all.

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Let me start by correcting the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh), who said that the Prime Minister only flies over the north. For rail and for HS2, it is all about capacity: we need to get capacity into the rail industry. Delivery and certainty are necessary for supply-chain businesses. This constant change is not helpful.

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We have seen the Government give up on the eastern leg; we have seen them give up on connecting to central London; and we have seen the downgrading of Northern Powerhouse Rail. Why are the Government giving up on the north?

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Having chaired the Select Committee on the first phase for 20 months, I always privately had the view that Old Oak Common was a more sensible place to stop, because the Elizabeth line runs straight through Old Oak Common. However, the logic of the railway is that it does have to go to Manchester and beyond.

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Huddersfield is a proud railway town. Is the Minister telling my constituents and the rest of the country that this is an abysmal failure of the country—the country of Brunel and Stephenson, the pioneers of railway building?

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As my hon. Friend knows, I am proud to host the UK’s fastest-growing ports in my constituency, and one of the things those ports are investing in is more freight connections to transport more containers by rail, rather than road. Will the Minister assure me that all the implications of any changes to the timetable for HS2 will be considered?

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What estimate has been made of the cost in contract litigation alone if the Chancellor were to conceive of scrapping phase 2 of HS2?

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For the record, the roads Minister is a very good one, who has had to swap lanes today at short notice. How many of the HS2 stations will have ticket offices? Last Thursday in Westminster Hall, there was a train crash of a debate in which not a single Back Bencher from any political party backed the Government’s proposals.

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I used to live in Wigan in the north-west of England, and I am very disappointed for my family and friends who are still there that this project is not going ahead—disappointed, like the people in Swansea are disappointed that the electrification never got to Swansea. HS2 is an England-only project.

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HS2 is already being built in Buckinghamshire, and it is a blight on the lives of my constituents in Aylesbury. Residents are experiencing massive disruption from noise caused by HS2’s contractors working well outside their contracted hours.

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For over a decade, I have been highlighting in this House how the Welsh taxpayer is being fleeced as a result of HS2. The spurious response I receive from Ministers is that north Wales will be linked via Crewe. Considering that it is highly unlikely that the line will make it north of Birmingham.

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Of course it is right that we discuss investment in our rail network in the north and the midlands, but we also have to have a discussion about East Anglia. Time and again, Ely North junction and Haughley junction have been deprioritised. Both those projects would cost a fraction of the cost of HS2 but deliver transformative benefits to the east of England. Will the Minister have discussions with his colleagues and the Treasury to see how we can get those two key projects back at the top of the agenda?

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We had great news a while ago when the Government said they would scrap the 2b arm of HS2, which would have devastated hundreds of homes across Rother Valley in Bramley, Wales and Aston, but many of those homes are still under safeguarding measures, meaning their owners are stuck in limbo. I know that the Government still want high-speed trains through the area, but the only financially viable way of HS2 getting to Leeds is by using existing track. Why is it taking so long to release the land when everyone knows and accepts that we will not be building a new track through Rother Valley to Leeds? Will the Minister release the safeguarding and release people’s homes?

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My hon. Friend has received a number of challenging questions from Opposition Members about Barnett consequentials for HS2. Is he aware that the Leader of the Opposition does not support Barnett consequentials for HS2?