Mark Whitehead 29 July 2016

HS2 ‘wasteful vanity project’, campaign group says

Prime minister Theresa May should scrap the 'wasteful' HS2 rail project, the TaxPayers' Alliance says.

HS2 dismisses the high speed system linking London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester as a 'vanity project' and says the business case for it has fallen apart.

The scheme is already projected to be massively over its original budget, according to the Alliance, with projected costs likely to reach almost £90bn.

The campaign group says the system on which work is due to start in 2017 is unlikely to be completed on schedule and there is a 'significant chance' that future technology will make it obsolete before it opens.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'HS2 is a wasteful vanity project which is unlikely to be completed on schedule and will cost taxpayers a fortune.

'The new prime minister should now be pursuing bold and imaginative policies to boost economic growth and increase productivity – and that positive approach must include scrapping HS2, which has cost taxpayers far too much already.

'Ministers should instead be embarking on more worthwhile infrastructure projects that will cost less and deliver far better value.'

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