Land in the path of the northern leg of HS2 was still being bought by the government just hours before the prime minister’s speech scrapping it.
Compulsory purchase orders for the cancelled infrastructure project were still going ahead, with one property, valued at more than £1.5m, sold less than 24 hours before the prime minister’s speech.
Meanwhile, a quarter of Whitmore Hall estate’s dairy farm in Staffordshire was sold to the Department for Transport through a CPO just days before the announcement.
