HS2 ‘wasteful vanity project’, campaign group says

Prime minister Theresa May should scrap the ‘wasteful’ HS2 rail project, the Taxpayers’ Alliance says.

HS2 dismisses the high speed system linking London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester as a ‘vanity project’ and says the business case for it has fallen apart.

The scheme is already projected to be massively over its original budget, according to the alliance, with projected costs likely to reach almost £90bn.

The campaign group says the system on which work is due to start in 2017 is unlikely to be completed on schedule and there is a ‘significant chance’ that future technology will make it obsolete before it opens.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: ‘HS2 is a wasteful vanity project which is unlikely to be completed on schedule and will cost taxpayers a fortune.

‘The