Our response to speculation about the future of HS2:
“High Speed 2 is the most important economic development project in Britain. It is already underway, and has already created thousands of jobs. Tens of thousands more will follow in the coming years as it integrates into the Midlands Connect and Northern Powerhouse Rail programmes to transform the economic geography of Britain, giving cities like Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield the springboard to be the economic powerhouses of the future.”
“Any suggestion of cancelling or curtailing HS2 to fund local schemes is a foolhardy false choice. The two types of schemes are entirely complementary, and Government policy is rightly to do both. Without HS2, and the other infrastructure projects that contribute to increasing economic growth and prosperity, the economic transformation of all parts of post-Brexit Britain becomes little more than a pipedream and the north-south divide gets locked in for another generation.”