HS2 East’s Co-Chairs Cllr Judith Blake (Leader of Leeds City Counci) and Cllr Kay Cutts (Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council) and Dan Jarvis (Metro Mayor of the Sheffield City Region), have responded following today’s publication of the National Infrastructure Commission’s Rail Needs Assessment for the Midlands and the North:
“We are hugely disappointed by the publication of the Rail Needs Assessment today. Let us be clear: the alternative options to delivering HS2 in full put forward by the National Infrastructure Commission would be deeply damaging to the North and the Midlands, and would seriously damage attempts to close the divide between London and the South East and the rest of England.
“Nothing less that the full delivery of HS2 – which the government have already committed to – is acceptable to civic and business leaders in the North and Midlands. We call on government in the strongest terms to reject these substandard proposals and stick to the public commitment made by the Prime Minister earlier this year to build HS2 all the way to Leeds and Manchester.
“The North and Midlands stand ready to work with government to get spades in the ground and ensure the best and most effective rollout of new high speed lines North, South, East and West for the East Midlands and the North. Only by delivering those projects in full, creating more capacity for commuter trains and freight, can the jobs and growth needed to level up ever truly be secured.”