Ministers shrug off economy fears to give final go-ahead to £106bn HS2 rail link

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Work on the 250 mph high-speed line will start within days after construction companies were given the final “notice to proceed” on the mega project.

HS2 has been given the go-ahead despite criticism

Construction workers will be given social distancing advice as they work on the first phase of the line between London and Birmingham.

HS2 Minister Andrew Stephenson said: “While the Government’s top priority is rightly to combat the spread of coronavirus, protect the NHS and save lives, we cannot delay work on our long-term plan to level up the country.” He said the rail line will be the “spine” of the new network which is expected to be ready by the end of the decade.

The line from Birmingham, north to Manchester and Leeds has yet to go through Parliament but is expected to be given the go-ahead later this year.

Mark Thurston, chief executive of the HS2 company, said the go-ahead was an “immediate boost to the construction industry.” He said the project would boost jobs, and added: “While the country’s focus is rightly on defeating Covid-19, the issuing of Notice to Proceed ensures that our contractors and their supply chains have the confidence that they can commit to building HS2, generating thousands of skilled jobs across the country as we recover from the pandemic.”

HS2 CRITICS

But economists against the project blasted the plans to continue in the face of the pandemic.

Matthew Kilcoyne, from the Adam Smith Institute blasted the wasteful spending and said: “The benefits of HS2 won’t just be delayed and overpriced, they’ll now likely never arrive. “Covid-19 is already undermining the economics of the project: with faster broadband and new technologies like Zoom fewer people will want to spend hundreds of pounds commuting across the country.

”We’ve got an economic crisis that’s going to cost taxpayers billions.

“We can’t afford vanity projects like HS2. We need to get back onto a sustainable financial footing.”

Dr Richard Wellings, Head of Transport at the Institute of Economic Affairs, added: “The economic case for HS2 was always weak.

“With the country in the midst of a Covid-19 induced economic downturn, the cost of this rail project – predicted to reach a mammoth £106billion – is simply unjustifiable.

“At a time of crisis, the government should not be spending taxpayers’ money on deeply unpopular vanity projects that offer very limited value for money.”