27,000 jobs could be lost if HS2 is scrapped
ALMOST 27,000 building, engineering, design and construction jobs will be created on the HS2 line during the first three years of development, a new report from the rail industry has claimed.
And these jobs will be lost if the Government performs a U-turn and scraps the £50 billion high-speed rail scheme.
A report from the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders (HSRIL), a consortium of train and construction companies, including Alstom, Bombardier, Atkins and Laing O’Rourke, has also revealed that 14,460 jobs have already been committed to the project by HS2 through preparation works and contracts already out tender.
Birmingham City Council University of Birmingham are affiliated to HSRIL.
There is considerable pressure on the Government to cancel the project, including a report from a Parliamentary backbench committee which concludes that the economic case for HS2 is weak.
Pro- and anti-HS2 groups are lin- to and also ing up lobbying events at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham in October to try to win influential support for their causes.
The figures produced cover only job creation to 2020 – to show government ministers potential gains and losses before the next general election.
Consultancy Albion Economics, commissioned by the HSRIL, has concluded that 26,650 jobs are at risk.
And these are only those people working on the high-speed rail track and stations and so the employment lost could be much higher with supply chain and spinoff regeneration jobs should the line be cancelled.
This also only includes employment until 2020 during the initial stages of work on phase one of the route between London and Birmingham.