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- By Nick Edser
- Business reporter
Criticism is growing over the possible scrapping of the HS2 high-speed rail link between Birmingham and Manchester.
Abandoning the link would be a “gross act of vandalism”, former chancellor, George Osborne, has said.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said axing the extension risked creating a “north-south chasm”.
Speculation about the rail leg has grown as the government has refused to guarantee that the line will continue between the midlands and north west.
On Sunday, Grant Shapps, the current Defence Secretary and former Transport Secretary, said it would be “crazy” not to review plans for HS2 given how costs have soared.
The BBC understands a decision on HS2 could be made as soon as this week.
The annual Conservative Party conference begins in Manchester on Sunday, and Conservative MP Steve Brine told the BBC “it would seem very odd to be in Manchester next week, and can a project to Manchester”.
HS2 is intended to link London, the Midlands and the north of England – the first part, between west London and Birmingham, is in mid-construction.
But the scheme as a whole has already faced delays, cost increases and cuts – including the planned eastern leg between Birmingham and Leeds.
The last official estimate on HS2 costs, excluding the cancelled eastern section, added up to about £71bn.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said last week that costs were getting “totally out of control”.
However, writing in the Times, Mr Osborne and Lord Heseltine said scrapping the route to Manchester, and potentially a link between west London and Euston station, would be “an act of huge economic self-harm, and be a decision of such short-sightedness that we urge the prime minister: don’t do it”.
“How could you ever again claim to be levelling up when you cancel the biggest levelling-up project?”, they wrote.
“Where would a cancelled HS2 leave the North and Midlands? Abandoned is the answer.”
On Sunday, Mr Shapps would not comment on whether or not separate plans for the Northern Powerhouse rail scheme between Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool would still go ahead if the northern section of HS2 is scrapped.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Mr Burnham said scrapping the HS2 extension “rips the heart” out of the plans for the Northern Powerhouse project.
“It would leave the north of England with Victorian infrastructure probably for the rest of this century,” he added.
If that happened while infrastructure in the south is upgraded it “is a recipe for the north-south divide to become a north-south chasm, the very opposite of the levelling up that we were promised in this Parliament,” Mr Burnham said.
Labour has so far refused to confirm it would fund the HS2 line to Manchester if the Conservatives axe it.
On Sunday, Darren Jones, new shadow chief secretary for the Treasury, said the Labour party would “love to build the HS2”, but said little “proper” information had been made available by the government.
Also at the weekend, more than 80 companies and business leaders also sought clarity over the commitment to HS2.
The bosses of dozens of businesses and business groups – including Manchester Airports Group, British Land, Virgin Money, and the Northern Powerhouse – all signed a letter to the government urging renewed commitment to HS2, saying that repeated mixed signals were damaging the UK’s reputation and the wider supply chain.
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