HS2 – and a good day to bury good news...
IT was a bit like seeing your favourite football team score a great goal and then having your celebrations nipped in the bud while you waited for a VAR decision (a feeling more and more of us are experiencing as the season progresses…).
We were gathered in the historic Curzon Street Station building, at the site where the new HS2 terminus will be built. There was the Prime Minister with his Chancellor of the Exchequer, who would be out of a job less than 24 hours later.
The air was filled with triumph after Boris Johnson had announced earlier in the House of Commons that the whole of HS2 would definitely be built.
The Chamber, which had led the business case in the region for the project to go ahead, was inundated with media requests and I was involved in several interviews for local, national and international television and radio.
It felt like a time for celebration; a time to feel pride for what this means economically to the region; a time to anticipate the dynamic impact HS2 will have on the region; a time to reflect on the number of jobs both locally and nationally that will be created.
And yet... the questioning from the media had a very negative edge.
One that put something of a dampener on proceedings as Professor Julian Beer, deputy vice-chancellor at Birmingham City University, many other regional representatives and myself underlined the capacity that HS2 had to bring jobs, skills and growth to the region.
But this didn’t seem to spill over to the media and their lines of questioning.
It was as if HS2 was going to be nothing but a huge burden to the country, not something that would spread economic growth across the length of the country, with Greater Birmingham at the heart of it. They seemed reluctant to recognise that the new line is going to free up vital capacity on our local rail network, meaning we can run more reliable and frequent local commuter services.
The exception was this newspaper, and its sister publication, the Birmingham Mail. The front page headline ‘Dawn of a new era’ captured our mood, which seemed to be lacking elsewhere.
HS2 will be a driving force for our region, accelerating development, creating new opportunities, more homes, and better jobs.
It provides a security that people and business across the West Midlands are crying out for at a time dominated by uncertainty.
There were dour questions about the costs and the impact on the countryside. Of course, we must bring costs down and the government has pledged to do this along with rigorous management to ensure we get it built as soon as possible.
And, of course, there were understandable reservations from opponents of the project worried about the impact on the countryside. But HS2 has pledged to create a
“green corridor” along the route which will act as a “home to wildlife and integrate HS2 into the landscape”.
And environmentalists should be encouraged that HS2 will help the UK to shift to a low-carbon economy, which is essential in the global effort to combat the climate emergency. It will allow modal shift by freeing up our congested networks and overcrowded local commuter trains.
Reports largely seemed to ignore the fact that we will also be able to attract more bigname companies to the region, following in the footsteps of HSBC UK, which moved its headquarters to Birmingham following the original announcement that HS2 was coming to the city.
In fact at the Chamber we had a groundswell of positive vibes immediately after the announcement as companies were telling us that interest in Birmingham had already rocketed as a result of the news.
This included enquiries about the availability of land and property not only the city but Solihull and other adjacent sites.
We are entitled to feel nothing but excitement and pride about all that HS2 will bring to Greater Birmingham – I just hope that eventually those sentiments will spill out across the rest of the country as this great infrastructure project swings into action.
Paul Faulkner is chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of
Commerce