HS2 News

The timetable for planning phase one of the HS2 project - from London to Birmingham with work due to start in 2016/17 - was "challenging", the National Audit Office report said.

This challenging timetable "makes delivering this work difficult and increases the risk that the programme will have a weak foundation for securing and demonstrating success in the future", the report said.

Expressing "reservations" about the business case for HS2, the NAO said the Department for Transport's (DfT) methodology for appraising the project put a high emphasis on journey-time savings, from faster and more reliable journeys.

But the report added that the relationship between these savings and the strategic reasons for doing the project, such as rebalancing regional economies, was unclear.

The NAO said it was also unclear whether the business case covered just phase one or the full route including phase two - the Y-shaped network from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds due to open in 2032/33.

• UK
• HS2

The HS2 high-speed rail project has an estimated £3.3 billion funding gap which the Government has yet to decide how to fill, a report from a Whitehall spending watchdog said today.

It was not clear how HS2 - which runs through Tory heartlands and is bitterly opposed by some - would deliver and rebalance economic growth, the report by the National Audit Office (NAO) added.

The timetable for planning phase one of the project - from London to Birmingham with work due to start in 2016/17 - was "challenging", the NAO said.

This challenging timetable "makes delivering this work difficult and increases the risk that the programme will have a weak foundation for securing and demonstrating success in the future", the report said.

• UK
• HS2

The Government showed its determination to keep the £33 billion HS2 rail project firmly on track by announcing proposed legislation in the Queen's Speech.

The first phase of the controversial scheme, from London to Birmingham, runs through Tory heartlands and is bitterly opposed by some residents' groups and some councils.

But the project has all-party support today an HS2 Hybrid Bill was announced as well as a High Speed Rail Preparation Bill.

The Hybrid Bill will not only give the Government parliamentary permission to build the line, but any specific powers needed to operate it.

The Preparation Bill will provide the financial powers to proceed with HS2 more quickly than otherwise possible.

This Bill will allow expenditure on the construction design of HS2 as well ecological surveys and other preparatory work. It will also provide Parliamentary authority for expenditure on property compensation.

• Politics
• HS2
• Rail

A spokesman for the anti-HS2 group that was successful in its High Court case over the compensation consultation suggested that the Government should issue property bonds:

We don't have a value for what the compensation bill will be.

One way for the Government to help would be to issue property bonds to ensure the housing market remains liquid.

Existing owners may have to sell at a discount because of the blight.

But bonds could be issued to ensure the person buying would have a guarantee that the Government would make up the difference if the price fell below a certain level.

This could help prevent people being unable to sell and remaining trapped in their homes for a long period of time when a change in their circumstances, such as a change of job, required them to sell.

• UK
• HS2
• Rail

The Department for Transport today said that a previous pledge to provide "generous" HS2 compensation still stands.

A DfT spokesman said: "The Government's commitment to being generous has not changed. We want to provide generous compensation."

• UK
• HS2
• Rail

A lawyer from the firm who represented High Speed 2 Action Alliance (HS2AA) - who won a case against the government today - expressed delight over the victory on the compensation challenge.

This was never a Nimby argument. Many thousands of people living along the route will not be able to sell their homes for some 15 years because their homes are blighted.

They should not have to bear the burden for this national project.

We hope now that proper arrangements are put in place by the Government for compensation for those who live by the proposed HS2 route to make it possible for them to move if and when they wish, in the same way that the rest of us can.

• UK
• HS2
• Rail

• Click here for the High Court's judgment on the five cases brought against the government in a bid to block the HS2 high-speed rail scheme.

• UK
• HS2
• Rail

Rail Minister Simon Burns hailed the four out of five cases won at the High Court as a "landmark victory"and said the loss on the compensation case would "not affect the HS2 construction timetable in any way".

This is a major landmark victory for HS2 and the future of Britain. The judge has categorically given the green light for the Government to press ahead without delay in building a high-speed railway from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

• UK
• HS2
• Rail

The High Court ruled that the consultation process for compensating those affected by the HS2 high-speed rail scheme "was so unfair as to be unlawful".

The decision was a victory for the High Speed 2 Action Alliance (HS2AA), which consists of more than 70 affiliated action groups and residents' associations.

The HS2AA case was one of five separate cases brought to block the rail scheme in its current form - it was the only case to succeed.

Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting at London's High Court, is now hearing submissions from lawyers on the appropriate remedy.

• UK
• HS2
• Rail