黑洞社区

Will he? Won鈥檛 he? Has he? Hasn鈥檛 he?

The construction industry and the nation at large have been waiting to know the prime minister鈥檚 decision on whether or not HS2 will be cut to a shuttle service between Acton and Aston.

And for a brief moment on Monday afternoon it seemed they had their answer when ITV鈥檚 Robert Peston reported that Rishi Sunak had made up his mind to cut the Manchester link and redistribute the money to other rail schemes in the north of England.

But before the dust had a chance to be kicked up (let alone settle) a Number 10 spokesperson corrected these reports, insisting that no such decision had been made.

All this controversy comes as the party congregates for its annual conference, which this year takes place in the comically inappropriate location of a converted railway station in Manchester. The party鈥檚 most senior leaders seemed desperate to avoid the issue, leaving it to their subordinates to field awkward questions at various fringe events.

Neither chancellor Jeremy Hunt nor transport secretary Mark Harper mentioned the nation鈥檚 largest infrastructure project a single time in their conference speeches and the latter swerved questions about its future during a sit down interview with rail industry leaders. When this reporter tried to ask Harper a question on the scheme after that fringe event, the minister simply walked on by.

Elsewhere in the conference, Harper鈥檚 subordinate responsible for HS2, Huw Merriman, endured an awkward panel session with Henri Murison, chief of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP). The infuriated Murison accused the government of dishonesty in its briefing about plans to redistribute any cut to HS2 to other schemes in the north.

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Murison said: 鈥淲hy on earth would the government not be more honest about the fact that if you cut HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester, you鈥檇 have to put 拢15bn back in the NPR budget to avoid cancelling NPR as well?

鈥淚 think what I鈥檇 ask from the minister is a bit of honesty. When he talks about the priorities of HS2, does that mean that NPR will be lost as well?鈥�

Merriman said that the problem with HS2 - that it had gone over budget and over time - was 鈥渨ell documented鈥�.

鈥淏ut we are delivering HS2 right now. I know people talk about spades in the ground 鈥� there are tunnel-boring machines in the ground,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it is a project that has been beset with difficulties. If all of the budget goes on increased costs for HS2, then it gets lost for other parts [of the country].鈥�

The NPP later issued a statement from Murison describing it as 鈥渕adness to leave what what meant to be the UK鈥檚 flagship infrastructure project like this鈥�.

鈥淯nless we can protect the Hybrid Bill, which is currently going through Parliament and which authorises the tunnel between Manchester and Manchester Airport, this means the end for Northern Powerhouse Rail and levelling up as a whole is finished,鈥� he said, urging the prime minister to reconsider.

Michael Gove was one of the few frontbenchers willing to offer anything on the scheme. Speaking at a packed Centre for Policy Studies fringe event on Sunday, he suggested east-west links could be prioritised. 鈥淓veryone wants to know what鈥檚 going to happen with HS2 [鈥�] the prime minister and the rest of us will say more in due course,鈥� he said.

鈥淓veryone will try to tease out of us more than that, but we in this conference will be clear that every transport project has to be scrutinised for value for money. My pushback but qualification is 鈥� if you鈥檙e thinking about transport overall, not only north to south, but also east to west, and also critically our transport links within the city regions.鈥�

Speaking to 黑洞社区 after a fringe event, construction minister Nusrat Ghani refrained from taking a strong line in favour of delivering the scheme in full, but gave a strong hint as to her personal view on the matter. 鈥淚 had HS2 in my brief and I am a Brummie so you should know where I stand on it,鈥� she said.

West Midlands mayor Andy Street also commented on the issue at an Onward fringe event, saying: 鈥淚f you tell the international investment community you are going to do something, you bloody well better stick to your word鈥�.

Harper, it seemed, was keen to talk about anything but rail. In their conference speeches on Monday morning, both he and energy secretary Claire Coutinho took Sunak鈥檚 new pro-motorist stance and ran with it. Rather than talking about infrastructure, Harper used his speech to threaten to block councils from using DVLA data to fine drivers as part of a broader attempt to fight so-called 15-minute cities.

Meanwhile, Coutinho walked a careful line, avoiding a total abandonment of the net zero cause. She said it was 鈥渘ot the climate deniers who threaten net zero鈥�, but Keir Starmer鈥檚 Labour Party, who she accused of making the policy a 鈥渞eligion鈥�.

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鈥淚f we are to succeed, net zero can鈥檛 be something that鈥檚 done to people by a privileged elite,鈥� she said, explaining the decision not to compel households to change their gas boilers. 鈥淥ur carbon emissions will continue to fall, but people will be able to make the transition when the price is right for them,鈥� she said.

It remains to be seen whether Sunak鈥檚 four-wheeled culture war will be a hit with voters, but his willingness to junk long-term strategies on net zero and infrastructure investment has provoked anger and despair among many of the conference attendees from the built environment sector.