The chief executive of East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) has commented on uncertainty around the future of the HS2 Eastern Leg, calling on the government to “stop playing games” with the future of our region.
If delivered in full, Chesterfield will stand to benefit from the Eastern leg of HS2 in a number of ways, with high speed trains carrying passengers to and from Chesterfield station. There are also proposals for regeneration of the area around the station, along with further plans for a maintenence depot in Staveley, creating a significant number of new jobs in the area.
Commenting on the ongoing uncertainty regarding the future of the HS2 Eastern Leg, East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) chief executive Scott Knowles said: “Fundamentally, nothing has officially changed regarding the future of the HS2 Eastern Leg since last year when the Government said it would set out its proposals in the Integrated Rail Plan (IRP).
“Yet it seems like every other weekend, we are reading reports in national media outlets in which anonymous Whitehall civil servants are sending out signals to diminish its chances of happening.
“With the IRP being kicked down the road continuously and not expected until the autumn, it has left a void for constant speculation that is causing huge uncertainty at a time when we need to know the direction ahead for future regional economic planning.
“It’s time for the Government to stop playing games with the future of our region, and those other areas that would stand to benefit significantly from HS2 East.
“While many of our perceptions have been adjusted during the pandemic, the huge economic benefits that HS2 can bring as part of the much-hyped levelling up agenda haven’t changed.
“Much of the understanding around HS2 appears to be hopelessly flawed. It is much more than just a new railway, bringing growth in the form of business investment, house building, place regeneration, high-skilled job creation, innovation, green technologies and more to areas that have faced chronic underinvestment over a number of years.
“Indeed, we are already seeing these plans start to come to fruition across Birmingham, where the certainty of the first phase of HS2 has already spurred private sector investment and development.
“Without the development of HS2 as promised, these plans will be critically undermined, and any delivery that does happen will certainly not be of the magnitude aspired to.”
