MPs will today vote on the Second Reading of the HS2 Bill. The TaxPayers' Alliance has long had severe concerns about the cost and value of the HS2project, which is set to cost every family in the country well over £1,500 according to official figures. It was originally based on a very weak business case, and that has continued to unravel over time.
The campaign group today calls on the Government – and Opposition parties – to vote against this Bill. There are better - and far cheaper - ways to improve our transport infrastructure.
Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
"It's unbelievable that this wasteful vanity project has been allowed to proceed so far despite its flimsy business case. MPs now have an opportunity to put the brakes on HS2 and force a serious rethink of spending priorities. The project should be abandoned now before any more taxpayers’ cash is squandered on what risks being the most expensive white elephant of all time.”
Over the last three years, the TaxPayers’ Alliance has published a number of pieces of research questioning the basis on which HS2 has got the go-ahead, namely:
High Speed Rail
HS2 Capacity Analysis
The hidden costs of HS2
We updated that research in late September 2013 with a new report, HS2 will not solve capacity issues on Britain’s railways, demonstrating how the already weak case for HS2 has continued to unravel.