CHAMBER NEWS No excuses: Deliver HS2 in full
The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has published its Rail Needs Assessment Plan, in which it outlined recommendations to Government for the future of HS2 – including a suggestion for the high-speed rail line from Birmingham to terminate at East Midlands Parkway, rather than continue to Leeds via a planned new Toton hub station. Chamber chief executive Scott Knowles, who has joined other leaders along the HS2 Eastern Leg in rejecting scaled-back proposals, explains why it must be built in full.
shape how we want our country to look as we leave the UK-EU transition period – and another that applies rough methodology, offers short-term logic and ultimately doesn’t deliver the same benefits. We have a plan that’s ready to
Artist’s impression of the HS2 Toton station
HS2 is the single-biggest transport infrastructure project in a generation and represents a huge opportunity for businesses, with the potential to unlock economic benefits of more than £4bn for the East Midlands and part of Yorkshire. By connecting the region with a
first-class UK and Europe-wide rail network, it will bring enormous opportunities to local firms and make the East Midlands a much more attractive location for inward investment. However, these benefits for both
the region and country will only be realised once it is delivered in full. That means the Eastern Leg being built exactly as the Government has promised all along, rather than a diluted version of this, and at pace. We will have major capacity
issues on the Midland Main Line within the next two decades unless something is done to upgrade the rail network, so this needs to be addressed urgently. HS2 would achieve this, while also offering much-needed improvements in connectivity between the region’s towns and cities.
However, this is so much more
than just a railway line. It’s been great to see many parts of the East Midlands come together to commit to a blueprint for the future of the region that will bring economic growth and jobs. We have been very clear on our vision, which is built on the idea that the Toton hub station becomes a destination in its own right – a magnet for inward investment and an industrial hub that unlocks further development opportunities. The NIC’s report is therefore very
concerning as it doesn’t take any of the regional growth plans into account and we absolutely do not accept its findings. Any suggestion that involves
stopping HS2 at East Midlands Parkway would not work for the region, and has already been considered and dismissed from a feasibility perspective years ago. When the Government makes its decision about which option to include in its Integrated Rail Plan, it will have a clear choice between an exciting vision created by a region that’s focused on long-term growth and prosperity – one that will
go and it’s time the Government delivered on promises it has made so many times over the past 12 months since it firmly committed to the scheme – and in the years that preceded it. The East Midlands currently has
the lowest transport spend per capita – £245 per head – of any region in the UK, receiving just 51% of the £483 UK average. The region is in desperate need of investment and finally putting any questions to bed on the HS2 Eastern Leg would go some way to proving the Government is serious about delivering on the levelling-up
agenda – a point on which it has repeatedly banged the drum without any serious proof of what this actually means. To do anything else would be a
huge mistake, critically undermining the entire project and blowing a huge hole in Government rhetoric.
Scott Knowles Support to help firms win supply chain work
Further support will be offered to Nottinghamshire SMEs bidding for work in national infrastructure projects and other large-scale contracts. Nottinghamshire County Council
has given the go-ahead for a new £10,000 online supply chain
38 business network February 2021
opportunities programme that includes expert advice and support on how to be “tender-ready”, as well as highlighting national contracts available for bids. The scheme aims to help at least
450 companies and will run over the next few months as part of
ongoing Covid-19 support. Councillor Kay Cutts, leader of
the council, said: “It will help our local supply chain to win more work when it comes to national infrastructure projects such as HS2, which will in turn safeguard and create new jobs.
“Where public money is being
invested in infrastructure locally, it is only right that we ensure it brings the greatest benefit to the county’s businesses and to local labour, goods and services which have been hard hit by the pandemic.”
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