Businessmen say scrap HS2

The £32 billion high speed rail network scheme should be scrapped according to 21 high profile businessmen, senior Tories and economists in a letter to The Daily Telegraph today.

Signatories to the letter, dismissing the project as an “expensive white elephant”, include Lord Wolfson, the chief executive of Next and Tory competitiveness adviser as well as Nigel Lawson, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer. They have dismissed the scheme as a “vanity project” which will cost every family in Britain at least £1,000.

Unfortunately, whilst this opposition is not coming from NIMBYs, the argument against is argued with little more coherence than the case for, which can be summed up in the words of the Secretary of State for Transport: Countries across Europe and Asia are already pressing ahead with ambitious plans for high speed rail. Britain cannot afford to be left behind.

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