Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Off the rails?
THE MILLIONS SPENT ON BUYING UP HOMES REVEALED AS CALLS TO HALT WORK ON HS2 INCREASE
THE government has forked out more than £1.25 billion buying up London properties to make way for HS2 the BBC Local Democracy Reporting service can reveal.
The railway builder is currently negotiating buying more, despite a review of the project due in October to decide if it will even go ahead.
Questions over the high-speed rail scheme’s future came after a report from the chairman of HS2, Allan Cook, revealed the link between London and Birmingham will be delayed by up to five years, and is now expected between 2028 and 2031. His report also found the total cost had risen from £62bn to between £81bn and £88bn.
The uncertainty has some critics saying the government would be better off ceasing destructive preparation work immediately, scrapping the project, and using the purchased land for affordable housing.
Many of the properties purchased to make way for the railway are in West London, which is also where some of the residents most affected by the construction live. For those living with the day-to-day noise and congestion, many say they would like to see work halted until a decision is made.
How much has been spent buying
properties?
An FOI from the Local Democracy Service revealed the total spend on buying up property in London to be £1,256,089,849 as of June 30 - and that isn’t the full amount.
Negotiations on some property purchases are still ongoing, with one antiHS2 campaigner saying there are still large numbers of owners waiting for pay-outs. HS2 said it had also acquired 54 residential properties under private agreement, discretionary schemes, or statutory blight, but said it did not hold data for properties or land acquired under compulsory purchase.
Where are these properties? Among the 54, 11 are in the UB9 and UB10 postcodes (which mainly covers Uxbridge), two were in the UB5 postcode (Northolt), and the majority of the remainder were in Camden and Westminster. Also included in the purchases were four commercial or industrial properties in the NW1 postcode, and one in the UB10, UB9 and W1T (central London) postcodes.
Information on the current condition of the purchased properties is not kept.
HS2 refused to release addresses, stating that it would risk exposing the empty properties to the risk of damage, illegal activity, squatters, and street artists. Also among the concerns was that the properties would be used as “shortterm
hiding places for criminals or terrorists”.
‘Use the land for housing’ Amanda Souter lives beside Old Oak Common in East Acton - one of the liveliest construction areas, with both a Crossrail and HS2 station planned there. She said there were a lot of benefits to the project being cancelled, and one was using the already-purchased land for housing.
She said the worst thing that could happen would be for the project to be put on hold, and the land left unused.
She said: “To leave us with a wasteland would be the absolute worst thing for this area. It should be cancelled, because there is no business case, it’s costing too much, and it’s out of control.”
‘It has to be stressed construction work hasn’t begun’ Lottie Jones has been fighting HS2 for a decade, set up the Hillingdon Against HS2 group, and now heads up the Hillingdon HS2 Resident Support Group. She lives in Ruislip, and when the route was first announced, the plan would have taken the line through her property.
It now goes through a tunnel instead, saving her and many others’ homes.
However, she said construction compounds had already replaced swathes of woods and fields in the area and Ruislip Golf Course has been closed for at least four years.
She said: “There isn’t anyone living locally who hasn’t already been affected by the gridlocked traffic caused by HS2, road closures and the predicted HGV movements through the area will be upwards of 500 a day.
“This is nothing yet compared to what is to come if, and when, the main construction work starts.”
Ms Jones said work to-date was laying the groundwork, and actual construction hadn’t begun.
A spokesman for HS2 refuted this however, saying: “Construction work for HS2 has already begun. With over 9,000 jobs supported by the project we currently have 62 live sites, servicing over 250 work locations - the most visible of which are at Euston in London and Curzon Street in Birmingham.
“There is a huge amount of work going on including road construction and improvement works, land clearance, habitat creation, tree planting, demolitions, archaeology, utility diversions and compound creation.
“We are preparing for main civil work to begin later this year, when we are ready.”
‘It is not too late to stop this
project.’
Ms Jones however said HS2 was attempting to paint a picture where too much money had been spent to scrap the project.
She said the current spend, which currently sits at around £7.4 billion, was nothing compared to the updated £81-88 billion price tag. She said: “The majority of the money spent could be recouped from property sale. It is not too late to stop this project.”
Ms Jones said it was “absolutely criminal” that work was continuing while the project was under review. “A halt should be put on all work now to prevent contractors ripping up our countryside and causing so much environmental damage, but instead they are stepping up their work to create as much damage as possible,” she said. What’s happening at Westminster?
After the release of the HS2 chairman’s report Transport Minister Grant Shapps said he was keeping an “open mind” about the project’s future. The report also found the second phase of the railway would be delayed.
The route, from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds, was due to open in 2032-33, but that has been pushed back to 2035-2040.
Acton MP Rupa Huq took up the issue at parliament on Thursday last week accusing Mr Shapps of using HS2 as a bribe to constituents in the shires. Mr Shapps denied the allegation, and said he hoped after the expected general election there would be crossparty consensus to “continue this important work”.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Service, Ms Huq said the review felt “like a Whitewash investigation designed to appease Conservative voters in the shire counties,” she said.
“My inside information is that phase one is too far advanced to pull down but certainly the second phase is in jeopardy.” She said she would like to see work ceased while the review was completed. What do West London’s
councils say?
An Ealing Council spokesperson said: “The independent review will be completed in October, the council will wait for its findings before commenting.
“Any halt to current works would have a minimal impact in Ealing.”
Hillingdon Council said it would have an announcement relating to HS2 next week. However, briefly after the HS2 review was announced the council issued a press release welcoming the investigation.
Council leader Ray Puddifoot said: “Aside from the disastrous environmental impact, the benefits of HS2 were highly questionable at its inception, but a combination of changing priorities and expensive mismanagement has resulted in the scheme becoming simply untenable.
“The council fully supports the decision to review the viability of the project and the way it is being delivered. We call for a swift decision to halt the continuation of the current enabling works that are already causing so much damage to our borough and its residents.”