黑洞社区

MPs have called on the government to give the 拢43bn HS2 a ring-fenced budget to finance environmental protection and mitigation measures amid fears they could get cut back if the scheme鈥檚 construction costs increase.

The legislation to authorise the first phase of the high-speed railway line, which runs from London to Birmingham, is due to receive its second reading in the House of Commons later this month.

Today, a report by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, said that a ring-fenced environmental budget should be used to pay for measures that reduced the environmental impact of the scheme or provide separate compensatory measures.

Joan Walley, chair of the committee, said it was 鈥渋mperative鈥� that large scale infrastructure projects had 鈥減roper environmental safeguards鈥� to ensure that 鈥渋mpacts were minimised鈥�.

She added: 鈥淭his means adopting stringent, enforceable standards and setting aside adequate funding.

鈥淭hat won鈥檛 happen if HS2 Ltd can avoid implementing safeguards if they consider them to be 鈥榠mpracticable鈥� or 鈥榰nreasonable鈥�.

鈥淭here needs to be a separate ring-fenced budget for these safeguards and for compensation, separate from the rest of the HS2 budget, to prevent the environment being squeezed if HS2 costs grow.鈥�

The report also said that the government needed to have greater ambition for the environmental goals of the project than simply to deliver 鈥渘o net biodiversity loss鈥�, as it has currently committed to.

The report said: 鈥淲here such biodiversity loss is genuinely unavoidable and cannot be mitigated, compensation measures should be applied to the fullest extent possible.鈥�

The MPs also said the government had not conducted enough environmental surveys along the route to establish a biodiversity baseline from which to measure the project鈥檚 impact. It added that survey should be completed 鈥渁s soon as possible鈥�.

An HS2 Ltd  spokesperson said the project already had  higher environmental standards 鈥渢han for any other project of such a significant scale鈥�.

 鈥淭he committee has acknowledged that the aim of 鈥榥o net biodiversity loss鈥� is a challenging one. There may be opportunities to achieve a net gain as the project develops and these will be considered fully. 

鈥淗S2 Ltd acknowledges the need to complete the outstanding protected species surveys as soon as possible and this work continues. We share the committee鈥檚 regret than some landowners have refused access for environmental surveys and hope they will now grant this access.鈥�