PM promises Euston development zone

A new development zone for Euston will be set up, with government taking control of the HS2 terminus site from the public body. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester today, prime minister Rishi Sunak said: “The management for HS2 will no longer be accountable for the Euston site.” Instead “a new Euston development zone” would be established, not just to deliver the high-speed rail terminus, but to “build hundreds of homes” as well as commercial space on the 60-acre site. He added that the change would free up £6.6bn of investment to be spent elsewhere in the country. “For the first time in the life cycle of this project, we are cutting costs,” he said. The PM also confirmed the leg between Birmingham and Manchester will be scrapped. “I am ending this long-running saga. I am cancelling the rest of this project,” he told delegates. The £36bn freed up would be spent on “hundreds of other transport projects” across the country and specifically in the North, including the newly minted Network North. “I challenge anyone to tell me with a straight face that all of that isn’t what the North really needs,” he said. “Every region outside London will receive the same investment or more than they would under HS2.” “To those who disagree, who will focus on what I have stopped, I ask you to look at what we have just created with Network North,” he said. The PM told the conference a fully electrified line would link Manchester to Bradford and Hull, that he would protect the £12bn project to link Manchester and Liverpool, while more would be allocated to “resurface roads, build hundreds of other schemes and keep the £2 bus fare”. Sunak said HS2 was “the ultimate example” of a 30-year-old consensus. “I say to those who backed the project in the first place: the facts have changed. And the right thing to do when the facts change is to change direction.” He also reached out to West Midlands Combined Authority mayor Andy Street, amid speculation that Street would quit the Conservative party if HS2 was scrapped. “I say to Andy Street, I know we have different views on HS2, but we can work together to build a better transport infrastructure.” To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Image © Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock