18.06.13
Spare change
The Government did not happen to notice there was a spare £33bn sitting around in the Treasury and then work out a way to spend it. HS2 is a project developed to solve a specific purpose, to add vital capacity to a stretched network, and the cost is spread over decades – and some of it will end up paid for by the private sector, not taxpayers.
Boosting growth, faster trains and even providing value for money are all secondary to this aim. While that may be criticised, particularly the business case, proposing alternative ways to spend that money is not overly helpful this late in the day.
Of course £33bn can buy a lot. It is a huge sum of money – HS2 is a huge project. But Nef’s new report only serves to spell out the obvious; that ministers could have decided differently.
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