Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 This will be our priority, our focus, our project.
00:04 HS2 is the ultimate example of the old consensus.
00:10 The result is a project whose costs have more than doubled,
00:16 which has been repeatedly delayed,
00:18 and it is not scheduled to reach here in Manchester
00:21 for almost two decades,
00:23 and for which the economic case has massively been weakened
00:27 with the changes to business travel post-COVID.
00:30 I say to those who backed the project in the first place,
00:34 the facts have changed,
00:37 and the right thing to do when the facts change
00:39 is to have the courage to change direction.
00:42 (audience applauding)
00:56 And so I am ending this long-running saga.
01:00 I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project,
01:04 and in its place,
01:05 and in its place, we will reinvest every single penny,
01:12 £36 billion in hundreds of new transport projects
01:19 in the North and the Midlands across the country.
01:23 This means £36 billion of investment
01:26 in the project that will make a real difference across.