A number of the major district and county councils along the route of the proposed High-Speed Two (HS2) rail line are being investigated by the Audit Commission.
There are reports this morning that a number of the major district and county councils along the route of the proposed High-Speed Two (HS2) rail line are being investigated by the Audit Commission for the misuse of public money, described by Tory MP for Weaver Vale, Graham Evans, as a “disgraceful misuse of public money”.
According to an article in the Bucks Herald in August, more than £250,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent by councils along the route on a fund to fight HS2.
The councils, including Buckinghamshire County Council and Aylesbury Vale District Council, are reported to all belong to 51m – a group of 15 Tory run councils who are against the project.
This sum, however, may be substantially lower than the actual figures that have been spent, today’s Liverpool Daily Echo reporting that £1 million may have been spent. It has also been suggested that considerably more councils are currently being investigated by the Audit Commission.
If this is true, this could leave these councils in a heap of trouble. Not only are they spending this money in a time of major council cutbacks, but they are spending the money in direct opposition to a project that has full support at the top levels of government.
Tory-run councils in the Home Counties are funnelling money to directly oppose a project that was in the Conservative Party manifesto (p. 23, pdf), and has had continued support from transport secretary Philip Hammond, chancellor George Osborne and the prime minister himself, David Cameron telling Parliament in June:
“I believe that if we are really serious about rebalancing our economy and ensuring that we get growth across the country, and not just in the south-east, the time for high-speed rail has come. That is why it has my strong support.”
There has already been some dissent in the ranks of the Conservative party on this matter, with backbencher Andrea Leadsom (Con, South Northamptonshire) and Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan (Con, Chesham & Amersham) – whose constituencies lie along the proposed route – leading the charge.
After the uprising from the Home Counties about the proposed changes to planning legislation, Tory-run councils misbehaving over another proposed piece of legislation will not be a further irritant to the government.
32 Responses to “Audit Commission to investigate anti-HS2 Tory councils”
Peter Davidson
@Ed’s Talking Balls: “what evidence do you have to support your claim?”
http://www.campaignforhsr.com/over-three-quarters-of-british-businesses-support-high-speed-rail
You’ll note that the survey results had to be qualified with the phrase “who expressed their opinion” – that’s because people, generally speaking don’t know much about HS2 and/or aren’t bothered about it for two main reasons;
1. It’s a long way off (in terms of time)
and/or
2. It doesn’t come anywhere near them
Funny but I have spoken to people about this issue and like you have found anecdotally that they don’t know much about and aren’t that interested. Where I agree with you is in concerns about the total cost of this project.
Firstly of course we need to note that the figures quoted included what is called (in Treasury speak); “optimism bias” of 40% – in short a figure deliberately increased to allow for contingencies and/or cost overruns.
Seondly we need to focus on just why it costs so damn much to build a new high speed rail line on this side of La Manche compared with our cousins on the mainland continent. Quite recently an agreement was signed up to finance and build the new line from Tours to Bordeaux, a distance of 302km – considerably greater than phase 1 of HS2 – the total cost of this new line, including interest on the loans required – the equivalent of £7bn or 40% of the HS1 phase 1 – now I know that HS1 phase 1 includes redeveloping Euston and tunnelling in London so it’s bound to be more expensive pro-rata but the figures quoted do not bear close comparison. So I say yes to full transparency of the procurement tendering process for HS2 but I still remain fully supportive of the principle of High Speed Rail in general.
Now when it comes to CrossRail and ThamesLink – just why do we not hear a squeak out of the anti-HS2 brigade about either of those two schemes, which just happen to benefit (exclusively) London/SE England?
Ah, the old “NIMBY” chestnut. How tiresome.
It may be tiresome (to you) but it is extremely relevant because 99% of the heat generated about this vexed topic comes from a tiny group of very active individuals who just happen to reside in close proximity to the proposed route
Sorry but I happen to disagree with you – the arguments in favour of HS2 are very strong
@Ed’s Talking Balls: “This is a rich man’s railway being unsuccessfully marketed as a social leveller.” Ah the HS2 is a rich man’s railway paid for by all of us – how tiresome. Do you have any evidence to support this grossly inaccurate and wildly exaggerated claim – thought not – so stop making this assertion
@Ed’s Talking Balls: I don’t know what makes you think I would be in favour of those projects.
But they’re still going full steam ahead aren’t they? When it comes to CrosRail and ThamesLinn I don’t hear any cries of NO BUSINESS CASE, NO ENVIRONMENTAL CASE, NO MONEY TO PAY FOR IT, emanating from the very vocal crowd in the Chilterns?
@Ed’s Talking Balls: If we are to spend such significant sums on rail, we should improve the existing network; extend the network to cater for areas with limited rail access, or none at all; and/or facilitate further access to the continent by train.
errr…..you seem to have conveniently forgotten the umpteen billion already committed to the ECML upgrade, the Great Western Line upgrade, the Northern Hub project, and the Manchester – Liverpool electrification programme, all of these proceeding during the present spending round.
When it comes to increased access/direct connection to the continent by train only a new line constructed to European interoperability standards can do that – guess what; HS2 is built to European interoperability standards and has a direct tunnelled link to HS1, thereby facilitating the further access you’ve asked for! From day one of HS2 going into operation I’ll be able to board a service from Manchester (where I live) direct to Paris/Brussels (changing in Lille Europe for seamless transfer on to a plethora of other High Speed mainland European services)
Leon Wolfeson
“When it comes to increased access/direct connection to the continent by train only a new line constructed to European interoperability standards can do that”
What rot. It’s perfectly possible to upgrade lines. Only a short interchange line out of London would be necessary.
Moreover, there are still portions of main lines in this country with relatively low speed limits because they need works doing to upgrade them…which would benefit far more than the tiny number of rich businessmen who will be able to afford to travelling to the continent via the HS2.
Strangely enough, spending money on the existing main lines for orders of magnitude more normal travellers is more beneficial…but no, you gotta defend the luxury train line.
Peter Davidson
Clearly @Leon Wolfeson, you haven’t the faintest idea what you are talking about. What short interchange line out of London would this be – please enlighten us regarding your wizard idea?
You betray your wilful ignorance in this matter by repeating the completely unsubstantiated claim that any new line will be the exclusive preserve of a “tiny number of rich businessmen who will be able to afford to travelling to the continent via the HS2.” Please explain (in rational language) how you arrive at this bizarrre conclusion ten/fifteen years in advance of the event?
Ed's Talking Balls
Peter,
I admit that it’s conjecture on my part to suggest that HS2 will be a rich man’s railway. However, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable assumption to make. For instance, a ticket from Birmingham to Euston is currently very expensive (and rail prices rise above inflation as a matter of course). Do you really believe that a more modern line, with quicker trains (albeit only marginally in this instance: I’ve heard that that route will only see a 20 minute time saving) will be cheaper, or even the same price?
As for my earlier comment about my lack of knowledge vis-a-vis opinion polls, I have gone some way to rectifying this:
http://www.hs2actionalliance.org/index.php/news/pollssurveys
The strong trend appears to be against HS2. From what I’ve heard anecdotally this comes as no surprise. I genuinely believe the government has its priorities all wrong on this issue, and it seems I’m far from alone in holding that view.
Peter Davidson
@Ed’s Talking Balls
I beg to differ when it comes to making reasonable/unreasonable assumptions about HS2
The reason why I robustly challenge your (bogus?) claim is that it is a cheap shot, populist criticism designed specifically to stoke negative public opinion about HS2. Strategies that are gaining some traction, reflected in part by the (flawed/skewed) opinion polling you refer to in your comments.
In fact there is no basis for this claim and no one (me included) can make substantiated predictions about the future fare structure of services running on a line that is 10/15 years distant!
What we do know however is that the line will be built to European interoperable standards, which facilitates direct head to head competition between different providers. We’ll have a sneak preview of the impact such competition will bring quite soon when Deutsche Bahn start their direct Frankfurt/Amsterdam > London service not so long from now; maybe next year but more likely in 2013. They’ve gone on public record with their offer of a one way fare of 49€ – which direction do we honestly believe that fares will be going once the monopoly currently enjoyed by Eurostar is broken – somehow I think they’ll be dropping very quickly!
Of course there will always be premium fare prices on any train service at peak times when premium (business) customers operate in the market – that’s a basic function of the laws of supply and demand – but to make the jump from that no brainer outcome and forecast that the new line will be the exclusive preserve of rich people is not just inaccurate – it’s just plain mendacious lies designed for propaganda purposes only.
When I quoted the report I referred to earlier I should have qualified my remarks by saying, don’t take the figures quoted as any kind of reliable indicator of sentiment – I used that survey just to indicate the basic level of public ignorance about HS2 – people aren’t bothered that much one way or the other about HS2 just yet, principally because it’s a long way yet!
In similar vein, I’d assert that the report you have referenced from HS2 Action Alliance is just so much grist to the mill – both sides of this argument are busy churning out statistics to support their viewpoints. The campaign has quickly descended into a tit for tat lowest common denominator struggle for the hearts and minds of the general public – hardly the most objective way to consider the merits of this multi-billion £ scheme.
I support the principle of High Speed Rail.
I support the principle of a new line built to the common operating standard I’ve mentioned for the reasons stated above.
I also support the principle of a new route to avoid the proven disruption of building alongside an existing transport corridor (either of the M40 or M1 routes would result in many more homes and businesses facing massive upheaval compared with the currently proposed route).
I agree that the present proposals need improving;
Why was Euston chosen?
Just why does the whole scheme cost so much?
etc. etc.
but these remain peripheral challenges.
The central core of the strategy to roll out High Speed rail to the rest of the UK is sound and should be backed. The proposals enjoy cross party consensus (almost unheard of in British politics!) and are long overdue – the UK is generally two decades behind continental Europe. Demand for rail services is only going one way in the future and High Speed rail is the only credible answer to the inexorably growing capacity shortfall – of course it doesn’t address all of the problems, no single scheme can, but it’s a start (for the rest of the UK outside the London/SE nexus) and one that is long overdue – we should get on with HS2 right now and compress the timescale for completion so that the undoubted benefits flowing from the scheme become apparent all the more quickly – once the public sees the positive outcome of HS2, they’ll be clamouring for their particular areas to be the next to jump on board the High Speed Rail revolution!