Businesses frustrated by British PM’s silence on HS2 rail link

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Northern England chief executives, business organizations and lawmakers wondered on Monday when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would announce a decision to scrap or delay the northern leg of Britain’s HS2 high-speed train. . project.

While most agreed that Sunak had probably decided to delay the stretch from the central English city of Birmingham to Manchester, the northern England venue of the ruling Conservative Party conference, they said they were baffled and frustrated that it had not yet been announced. .

A source in Sunak’s No 10 office said on Monday that no final decision had been made on HS2, a message government ministers have been repeating for weeks.

But business leaders and organizations in Manchester said they believed the writing was on the wall, with one boss, who did not want to be named, describing the likely scrapping or delay of the northern leg as a “betrayal” by the government.

HS2, o High Speed ​​2It was originally expected to link London with cities including Birmingham, Manchester and another northern English city, Leeds, but has since been scaled back. Business leaders say every delay means the project becomes more expensive.

“They will be turning their back on an opportunity to level up, a once-in-a-generation opportunity. In fact, they will be damaging our international reputation as a place to invest,” said Andy Street, a Conservative mayor-elect for England’s West Midlands region. .

Government ministers have often said HS2, Europe’s biggest infrastructure project, should be reviewed due to rising costs, raising the possibility that its northern section will be scrapped and prompting warnings from businesses about the need to invest.

Sunak, who hopes to use his party’s annual conference to revive his premiership and close the gap in opinion polls with Labor ahead of elections scheduled for next year, has repeatedly said he is the man to choose. “.difficult decisions“.

Removing the Manchester link would reduce HS2 to a line between London and Birmingham. Work in this initial phase is already advanced.

Even before Britain’s run of double-digit inflation from late 2022 to early 2023, HS2’s budget had ballooned.

Its 2015 cost of £55.7 billion ($68 billion) reached £98 billion in 2019, and a 2020 review showed it could rise to £106 billion.

($1 = 0.8234 pounds)

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