Comment Early evidence HS2 is lighting the fire in region
THE Victorians understood that building new railways brought prosperity. With the newly opened Elizabeth Line already a roaring success, Londoners today are seeing those benefits too. Now it is the turn of the West Midlands.
The building of Britain’s new high-speed railway HS2 is well under way and the promise of greater prosperity is already being felt.
Since parliament gave its backing for HS2 in 2017, the city of Birmingham has seen an influx of cranes and new buildings rising from the ground.
Big names such as HSBC, PwC and Goldman Sachs have significantly grown their presence in the city.
But, for too long, the debate around HS2’s impact has relied on the anecdotal. How much has the pace of change in Birmingham really been spurred by the promise of HS2? Now, new economic analysis – the result of assessing over 3,000 planning applications close to HS2’s stations and depots before and after the project was approved – provides the certainty we’d been looking for.
It’s true our economy has been rocked in recent years, with Covid and the war in Ukraine causing inflation and undermining growth.
But still, new economic analysis shows that HS2 is attracting investment, sparking regeneration in Birmingham and the West Midlands, adding new offices, housing developments and industrial renewal.
When you crunch the numbers, they are truly startling.
The regeneration and investment HS2 is bringing to the West Midlands is set to add £10 billion to the region’s economy over the next ten years alone.
Since the project was approved, planning applications within a 1.5-mile radius of HS2’s Curzon Street station, Interchange station in Solihull and Washwood Heath depot have gone up by two thirds.
In HS2’s areas of influence, planned floor space has risen by 200 per cent and the number of new homes in the system is up by almost 500 per cent.
These indicators of economic growth far outstrip planning activity elsewhere in the region while the total value of construction projects in HS2’s areas of influence have gone up by 240 per cent since 2017. Outside of them, they’ve gone down.
The promise of improved connectivity is supporting the growth of Birmingham’s creative industries.
A cluster of television, film and digital creators are locating in Digbeth, on the doorstep of HS2’s new Curzon Street station.
Steven Knight, the acclaimed writer of Peaky Blinders, is building a state-of-the-art film studio.
He sees that HS2 is building vital infrastructure that supports his exciting vision for the city.
The BBC has invested millions in a new regional broadcasting base, reinvigorating a derelict site that was once a Tetley Tea factory.
The UK desperately needs more new homes and HS2 is enabling a surge in planned residential dwellings in the West Midlands. Transformational public-realm schemes such as Smithfield and Digbeth High Street are set to create new standards for city living.
Much has been written about HS2’s price tag and, since I took the reins of the project at the end of last year, I have a sense of the enormous responsibility to ensure we provide the best possible value for taxpayers and show the UK can successfully deliver big infrastructure.
But big investments reap big rewards.
Decades from now, we won’t only speak about how HS2 changed our rail network through quicker, better journeys with fewer delays and more seats, but how it improved lives.
Thousands of new homes, world-leading industry and transformed public spaces are the true legacy we will leave behind.
The West Midlands is getting its new railway and railways spread economic growth – more jobs, more investment, more opportunities.
Birmingham, already a truly great city, has a very bright future ahead. Sir Jon Thompson is
chairman of HS2