HS2 delay will be disaster for region

DEAR Editor, I can readily understand why anyone personally inconvenienced by the proposed HS2 project would not wish to support it. But those who can see the wider strategic and economic advantages to a region such as ours have been in favour of the scheme throughout its already overlong period of gestation.

In terms of the much-vaunted and oftpromised regional rebalancing of the nation’s economy, it is quite simply the only show in town. Nevertheless, after a recent review of the project by the House of Lords, the Government has now decided that we need a further reassessment, with its findings due later this year.

To cancel the project and sacrifice the economic advantages from which the region is already benefiting would seem to be the worst possible outcome; but there is one result that would be even more disastrous, and that is to add further needless delay, and therefore cost, to a project already reported to be well behind schedule.

So with muddle and incompetence on a scale reminiscent of the Government’s handling of Brexit, and before the review committee has even sat, that is precisely what we have been told the outcome will be.

As wisely pointed out in last week’s Post, this is no more than a political expedient to ensure that neither supporters nor detractors of HS2 really know what will become of the project

– a cynical attempt by the Government to keep both parties hanging on to the swinging pendulum of hope and uncertainty and so retain the political support of both camps. It deserves the support of neither.

Meanwhile, the robust economy of London continues to prosper, and the wealth gap between our capital and the nation’s regional cities continues to widen.

Would it be too cynical to suggest that this is really the Government’s true policy after all?

If it is not, they are at least guilty of procrastination and incompetence on a huge scale.

A J Millinger (by e-mail)