Mayors blast HS2 chaos as they warn North will be left with Victorian railway
Labour mayors from five “great cities” put on a show of force to warn the PM ditching the northern part of the HS2 would be”madness” and a “disaster” for the nation.
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region and Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire are demanding a meeting with the PM. London’s mayor described pulling the plug on HS2 as “madness”.
“It would be the squandering of billions of pounds of taxpayers money but also it would be a public policy failure of epic levels,” he said. "We have had this Government for 13 years - where have they been when costs have been spiralling?”
The show of unity in Leeds is an attempt to push back on Rishi Sunak's anticipated plan to scale back HS2. They are furious and “frustrated” that high speed rail may now not reach the north. The high speed rail project is intended to link London, the Midlands and the north of England. The first part, between west London and Birmingham, is already under construction.
But the scheme as a whole has already faced delays, cost increases and cuts - including the planned eastern leg between Birmingham and Leeds which was axed in late 2021. Andy Burnham told the Mirror “pulling the plug on” HS2 would be the biggest “betrayal” of the north he’s ever seen.
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He told The Mirror: “As political betrayals go, it’s one of the biggest I would have ever seen in my political career.” As for the chance of getting any votes in the north if HS2 was ditched, he said: “They wouldn’t deserve to recover here because it would just lay bare how they treat us. They did it to us in the pandemic, don't forget, they tried to treat us differently over tier three. There’s a difference between what they say and what they do. We’re an afterthought when it comes to transport decisions. “
He said he is “profoundly frustrated” they think they “can just rip up” promises made to the north. They think they can treat the people in the north as mugs. That’s what they think,” he added.
South Yorkshire’s Oliver Coppard said: “This Government could not organise a bunfight in a bakery. The transport system in the north is second class. We have now no connectivity, from South Yorkshire to an international airport. We have lost Doncaster/Sheffield airport - albeit we are fighting hard to try and bring it back into life. Our buses are what I feel is a terminal decline. So HS2 is just another nail in the coffin. We are all coming together to say to this Government ‘invest in infrastructure if you want to see growth’. They have continued to let down the north and failed to deliver on the promises they have made.”
In the joint Mayoral Statement, they said: “We release this statement to express dismay on behalf of our regions at the news that the Government is considering scrapping HS2 or curtailing it to such a degree that it will fail to produce any meaningful economic benefit. Over recent days we have been inundated by concern from businesses across our regions about the economic damage that will result from any decision not to proceed with HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) in full. We feel it is our duty as regional mayors to communicate clearly and publicly the strength of feeling on this…” They urged the PM to meet them “to discuss the future of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail before any decision is made.”
West Yorkshire Mayor, Tracy Brabin, said: “Scrapping HS2 Is going to damage jobs, investment and confidence in our region and it’s economic vandalism. This is going to be a disaster for this country." She explained how she was "furious" when the HS2 from Birmingham to Leeds was pulled but this shows a further "disregard for the north" from the Government. "Because transport is so poor, people are making decisions that impact their lives," she said."They are not picking their university of choice because they can't get there, they are moving house, they are driving instead of taking the train because it is not reliable. This is a critical moment for our country.. It sends a terrible message to the rest of the world that we are not the place to invest in.”
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