HS2 spends nearly £150m buying homes and land on curtailed Eastern leg - with more to come

Details released under Freedom of Information laws to The Yorkshire Post reveal that by October 31, HS2 had spent £146.6m on buying houses and land along the planned Eastern leg route which had been intended to run between Birmingham and Leeds.

A further 130 applications for purchases are still being evaluated by HS2 Ltd, which is a Government-funded company, and may still go ahead despite the Government’s decision in November to scrap the current route in favour of a shorter high-speed line running between Birmingham and the East Midlands Parkway station.

Hundreds of people who lived on the Shimmer Estate in Mexborough which had been due to be on the Eastern leg route have moved out after their properties were purchased by HS2, with the homes then rented out by the company. The Eastern leg route itself was not the original plan for HS2 and only came to be proposed after plans to run the line through a new station by Meadowhall on the outskirts of Sheffield were dropped.

Doncaster North MP Ed Miliband said: “My constituents have been put through misery and heartache by the decision in 2016 to re-route HS2 through Mexborough, including the Shimmer estate, when it was clear this was the wrong route for both value for money and regeneration of our towns.

“Five years on, the whole plan has been cancelled, and this evidence shows massive amounts of money have been spent. It is an appalling example of poor decision-making, no understanding of the impact on people’s lives and government incompetence. They should have stuck with the original HS2 Meadowhall route as so many of us also argued consistently.

“On top of all this, Boris Johnson has broken his promises around Northern Powerhouse Rail. Residents across Yorkshire deserve better than this government.”

The Eastern leg route remains under what is known as the ‘safeguarding’ process under which people whose buildings or land can sell their property to HS2 and receive extra compensation for what is known as statutory blight.

The Government has opted to maintain safeguarding along the Eastern leg route while a new study is carried out into alternative ways to connect HS2 to Leeds.

It means that at this stage, land and property owners along the Eastern leg can still continue their applications.

The Freedom of Information response from HS2 said the company did not record purchase information for the route by region, meaning it is not possible to say how many of the completed or planned purchases were specifically in Yorkshire or the section of the route that is currently due to be cancelled.

While HS2 says the revised route between Birmingham and the East Midlands will “largely be based on the previously published route”, work is still taking place on how it will work in practice and will be subject to further public consultation - opening the door to further purchases of land and property along the altered section eventually being required.

The sale of land and property no longer needed for HS2 given the changes to the Eastern leg route will not take place until the Department for Transport and Network Rail study on how to connect Leeds to the network.

Should the sales process go ahead, some of them would be subject to what are known as the Crichel Down Rules, which require Government departments to offer back surplus land to the former owner or the former owner’s successors at the current market value.

HS2 said they could not provide a breakdown of how many commercial and residential properties they have purchased along the route due to the way data is recorded.

Removing safeguarding from the Eastern leg route at this stage could end up costing taxpayers more money, the Government has argued.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We recognise the impact that HS2 has had on residents on the proposed line, and that’s why our compensation schemes go far beyond what the law requires.

“The Government has now committed to explore the most effective way to run HS2 trains to Leeds, and it’s important we safeguard properties until final decisions are taken. A failure to do so would cost the taxpayer more and cause greater uncertainty for residents.”

Alexander Stafford, Conservative MP for Rother Valley and an opponent of the Eastern leg route which had been due to run through his constituency, said he understands it may take until 2023 for safeguarding to be lifted.

“Immediately after the announcement of the cancellation, I spoke with Andrew Stephenson MP, the minister with responsibility for HS2, who assured me that the safeguarding would be lifted, but that it would take 12 to 18 months to unwind,” he said.

“I fully understand why constituents want the safeguarding lifted immediately and I will continue to urge the Government to complete this process as quickly as possible.”

The DfT has not said publicly when it expects the Leeds study to be completed by.

Mr Stafford raised the safeguarding issue in Parliament in December during a debate on the Integrated Rail Plan.

He said: “The smaller towns and villages will benefit from this plan, not least Bramley, Wales and Aston in Rother Valley because HS2 was going to bulldoze through them, destroying 400 homes.

“However, there is still safeguarding around the route, so can the Secretary of State update us on when that will be lifted so that people in Rother Valley can get on with their lives?”

Mr Shapps said in response that the decision would be linked to the outcome of the Leeds study.

“We will of course continue to keep the matter under review, but £100 million is going to West Yorkshire and Leeds to see the best way of getting HS2 trains to Leeds so I ask him to be a little more patient on that front. However, he is absolutely right to mention the smaller towns and cities that the Labour party seems to have largely forgotten about. The existing plan would have seen deteriorating services.

“We intend to revise the plan, because as far back as 2014 it was recognised that the existing plan would ‘deliver maximum disruption and minimal benefit’.”

Read more:

Single mother from Yorkshire sold 'forever home' to make way for now cancelled HS2 line

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