We were on the right track. Cancelling HS2 has taken us off it

This week, Rishi Sunak cancelled HS2 blaming delays and cost overruns. His decision puts the construction industry and, by extension, the country, on the wrong track. This is why.

In the grand scheme of big infrastructure projects, HS2 was doing just fine. We beat ourselves up for delays and cost overruns, but actually Britain does these projects, planning bureaucracy aside, well — even in comparison with our German neighbours.

>> Also read: Infrastructure in crisis: ministers must honour commitments so schemes like HS2 can overcome poor perceptions

>> Also read: Procrastination over HS2 is the one thing we don’t need right now

The Germans started building the Berlin Brandenburg Airport in 2006 with a view to opening it in October 2011. It was delayed due to poor construction planning, execution, management — even corruption. It finally opened to commercial traffic on 31 October, 2020, 29 years after official planning began, 14 years after construction started, and nine years late. So much for German efficiency…

In the end, Crossrail was three and a half years late. It has got air-conditioning. It has got wifi. It is the most travelled route in London. No one now cares that it was delayed. Some building projects are worth the wait. 

Second, we now lose the chance to gain world-beating expertise. Last August, for instance, it was announced that bosses from the Crossrail project will advise Israeli officials on the new Tel Aviv metro. Engineers from Crossrail International, the advisory company owned by the Department for Transport, are now providing consulting services for a new $45bn, three-line underground with 90 miles of tracks and 109 stations.

Large infrastructure projects like HS2 give the construction industry in this country the chance to gain world-class expertise

Crossrail is advising on design, safety and standards, as well as on sustainability and environmentalism. The project is generating significant returns as well as boosting the UK’s reputation as an engineering superpower.

Large infrastructure projects like HS2 give the construction industry in this country the chance to gain world-class expertise — expertise that will be marketable globally once the project is complete. This is an oft-ignored national benefit to Britain of undertaking big construction projects. Building the Shipley bypass is great — one of the replacement projects the PM promised in his speech — but I doubt we are going to be exporting the construction expertise behind it.

Third, HS2 was also an economic project that already employs 30,000 people directly and is significant for our steel industry’s survival. That seems to have been forgotten.

Fourth, Britain has a long track record for hesitating over infrastructure programmes. It took more than a century for the Channel Tunnel to be built after it was first suggested seriously. Imagine if we had committed to London Ringways, the series of four ring-roads planned in the sixties to circle London and alleviate traffic congestion. That was cut back to become the M25 — a compromise so bad it became the road to hell. The original vision never saw the light of day.

Crossrail 2 started life as a plan for a south-west/north-east Tube line back in 1901. It never happened. And ministers approved outline proposals for a third runway at Heathrow back in January 1946. If only we had seen these projects through and tackled them at the time! Future generations will wonder how this once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost.

Proof of the transformative impact of infrastructure investment is evident in the development occurring around Elizabeth line stations

We know the country’s rail capacity is squeezed, despite the revolution in remote working. There is no spare room on our roads. Upgrading existing lines would result in 15 years of closures; a typical weekend journey from London to Leeds would ­almost double to more than four-and-a-half hours while tracks were refurbished. 

The great cities of the North have been adrift from London for decades. Proof of the transformative impact of infrastructure investment is evident in the development occurring around Elizabeth line stations. In less trendy areas of London, this investment is revitalising entire neighbourhoods, pulling them out of poverty.

A compelling illustration of quite how much HS2 could have done to reshape the economies of northern cities can be observed in Birmingham, which is already experiencing the positive ripple effects of HS2. The greater Birmingham region has risen in foreign direct investment rankings. The regional economy has expanded by 36 per cent to £29bn over the past decade.

Would HSBC have broken with the City and decided to make Birmingham its UK headquarters without HS2?  I doubt it. Leeds, Crewe and Manchester have now been denied the same benefits. 

Victoria Short is CEO of Randstad UK & Ireland