House of Lords to publish HS2 report next week

The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee have been investigating whether the Government’s proposal for a new high speed rail line between London and Manchester makes economic sense and whether it is the best way to meet the twin objectives of providing extra rail capacity and rebalancing the UK economy away from London and the South East.

The Committee have been looking in detail at a wide range of evidence on HS2 since July 2014. Its comprehensive report considers the case HS2 in detail in advance of the Lords’ consideration of the HS2 enabling bill, currently in the House of Commons and which will later come to the House of Lords

The report will be published at 00:01 on Wednesday 25 March. The Committee will hold an embargoed press briefing where copies of the report will be available to the media from 10:00am on Tuesday 24 March. The press briefing will be hosted by Lord Hollick, Chairman of the Committee. He and other Committee Members will be available to answer questions.

The press briefing will be held in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords. Copies will be available to read in the briefing room from 10:00am, the briefing will start at 11:00am. All contents of the report and briefing will be embargoed until 00:01 on Wednesday 25 March however.

The total cost for HS2 is estimated at £42.6 billion, including £14.4 billion of contingency and the Heathrow expansion will deliver up to £211 billion in economic benefits and 180,000 jobs throughout the UK.

For further information about the briefing please email [email protected] by 2pm on Friday 20 March. The report will be available online after publication on the Committee’s webpage.