HS2 to Manchester axed in favour of ‘Network North’ – as former PM Cameron calls decision ‘wrong’
Rishi Sunak has confirmed the long-rumoured decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 .
Reports the planned high speed rail line would end in Birmingham – rather than continuing up to Manchester – have been circling for weeks, with sources telling Sky News on Monday the decision had been made.
But the prime minister has spent days dodging the question, only making the announcement as he gave the closing speech to this year’s Conservative Party conference.
Read more: HS2 axe branded betrayal of the north – politics latest
Mr Sunak defended the move by promising to spend the billions of cash savings on hundreds of other transport schemes across the country instead.
They will include:
• The ‘Network North’ project to join up northern cities by rail
• A ‘Midlands Rail Hub’ to connect 50 stations
• Keeping the £2 bus fare cap across the country
But a number of the projects appear to have been announced before and critics have suggested Mr Sunak is reviving schemes he was responsible for cancelling.
HS2 will still go to Euston despite suggestions it could end in the west London suburb of Old Oak Common, rather than in the centre of the capital.
Speaking from a former railway station in Manchester, where the Tories’ annual event was held this year, Mr Sunak told members getting infrastructure right was key to driving growth, but a “false consensus” had emerged, with projects “driven by cities at the exclusion of everywhere else”.
‘I am ending this long running saga’
He said HS2 was “the ultimate example of the old consensus”, saying the cost had doubled and the “economic case” for the line had “massively weakened with the changes to business travel post-COVID”.
The prime minister added: “I say, to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed. And the right thing to do when the facts change, is to have the courage to change direction.
“So I am ending this long-running saga. I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project.”
Mr Sunak said scrapping phase two to Manchester would free up £36bn, and “every single penny” would be spent on “hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, and across the country”.
But the government’s new “focus” would be on a project called Network North, which would “join up our great towns and cities in the North and the Midlands”.
The fully electrified line would see trains make the journey from Manchester to Hull in 84 minutes, to Sheffield in 42 minutes and Bradford in 30 minutes.
“No government has ever developed a more ambitious scheme for northern transport than our new Network North,” the prime minister added.
“This is the right way to drive growth and spread opportunity across our country. To level up.”
Sunak has rolled the dice
Rishi Sunak’s speech was packed with policy – on banning smoking, replacing A-levels with a new qualification – though not for quite a few years – and of course the long awaited axing of HS2 to fund regional transport upgrades.
There were also some indications of campaign attacks on Labour – in particular with his references to trans issues, and Sir Keir Starmer’s previous positions on Brexit.
A year out from an election, these are long term plans that may never happen, if voters don’t want to keep the Conservatives in the short term.
But Sunak has rolled the dice on the idea his party can regenerate for the future.
Listing other transport pledges, Mr Sunak said he would “protect” the £12bn project to link Manchester and Liverpool, build a tram in Leeds and upgrade the A1, A2, A5 and the M6.
He also promised to extend the West Midlands Metro, electrify the North Wales main line and 70 further road schemes.
“I challenge anyone to tell me with a straight face that all of that isn’t what the North really needs,” he said.
“Our plan will drive far more growth and opportunity here in the North than a faster train to London ever would.”
The plans immediately drew criticism from regional mayors, including Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, who said the HS2 announcement was “no way to treat our city when they are in our city”.
He said the government had not announced a “coherent plan” but a “transport plan patched together in hotel rooms at a party conference with no input with northern leaders or mayors”.
Mr Burnham went on to say the current plan would not solve the problem of bottlenecks and lack of capacity on the railway network in the north, which covers from Liverpool in the west to Hull in the east.
He also accused the government of failing to turn its transport pledges into reality and suggested that previous statements had been made “with political intentions in mind to try and win votes here”.
“It’s starting look very much like that’s what it was all about – and what has been announced today feels more of the same,” he added.
His concerns were echoed by Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh, who said the north and Midlands had been “left to pay the price” for this “staggering Tory fiasco”.
“Only after 13 years of dismal failure could the Conservatives make the centrepiece of their conference a re-announcement of promises the Conservatives have made before,” she said.
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Read more:
Analysis: Sunak’s woes are a conference sideshow
HS2 explained – what is the route and why has leg been axed?
West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin called the decision “yet another betrayal of the North which will punish passengers and businesses alike”.
The head of research and policy at the GMB union, Laurence Turner, also said the scrapping of the northern HS2 leg would “send a shockwave through the construction industry and railway supply chain, costing hundreds of jobs”.
He added: “The UK’s political instability was already holding the economy back – it will now be even harder to fund and deliver the new infrastructure that the country desperately needs.
“We can’t rebalance the economy or fix the railway capacity crisis without HS2. It’s essential that the planned route is now protected so that a future government can reverse this disastrous decision.”
Mr Sunak accepted he would face criticism for the decision – having already been slammed by Tory grandees, regional politicians and businesses before the announcement was even made.
“They will say that halting it signals a lack of ambition,” he told the audience. “There will be people I respect, people in our own party, who will oppose it.
“But there is nothing ambitious about simply pouring more and more money into the wrong project.
“There is nothing long-term about ignoring your real infrastructure needs so you can spend an ever-larger amount on one grand project.
“For too long, people in Westminster have invested in the transport they want, not the transport the rest of the country, particularly the North and Midlands, wants and needs.”
Mr Sunak addressed one critic in particular – the Tory mayor in the West Midlands, Andy Street – saying he was a man he had “huge admiration and respect for”, Mr Sunak added: “I know we have different views on HS2.
“But I know we can work together to ensure a faster, stronger spine: quicker trains and more capacity between Birmingham and Manchester.”
Mr Street confirmed he would not resign from his post despite being “incredibly disappointed” about the HS2 decision.
He said he had “thought incredibly long and hard about what my future in the Conservative Party should be”, but had decided to remain a member.
“The West Midlands must be at the heart of the UK’s modern transport network and reap all the benefits that will bring,” he said.
“The prime minister has today reached out to work with me to make that happen and to turn my back on that offer would be doing a serious dis-service to my region.
“I know this decision will make me deeply unpopular in some circles, and indeed many wanted me to resign and make a statement against my party.”
The prime minister announced a number of other policies that had been trailed in the days leading up to the conference – including introducing a British baccalaureate to allow pupils over 16 to study a wider range of subjects, and new tactics for making England smoke-free.
Business
Post Office scandal: Victims say government’s control of redress schemes should be taken away
Post Office scandal victims are calling for redress schemes to be taken away from the government completely, ahead of the public inquiry publishing its first findings.
Phase 1, which is due back on Tuesday, will report on the human impact of what happened as well as compensation schemes.
“Take (them) off the government completely,” says Jo Hamilton OBE, a high-profile campaigner and former sub-postmistress, who was convicted of stealing from her branch in 2008.
“It’s like the fox in charge of the hen house,” she adds, “because they were the only shareholders of Post Office“.
“So they’re in it up to their necks… So why should they be in charge of giving us financial redress?”
Nearly a third of Ms Hamilton’s life has been dominated by the scandal
Jo and others are hoping Sir Wyn Williams, chairman of the public statutory inquiry, will make recommendations for an independent body to take control of redress schemes.
The inquiry has been examining the Post Office scandal which saw more than 700 people wrongfully convicted between 1999 and 2015.
Sub-postmasters were forced to pay back false accounting shortfalls because of the faulty IT system, Horizon.
At the moment, the Department for Business and Trade administers most of the redress schemes including the Horizon Conviction Redress Scheme and the Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme.
The Post Office is still responsible for the Horizon Shortfall scheme.
Lee Castleton OBE
Lee Castleton OBE, another victim of the scandal, was bankrupted in 2007 when he lost his case in the civil courts representing himself against the Post Office.
The civil judgment against him, however, still stands.
“It’s the oddest thing in the world to be an OBE, fighting for justice, while still having the original case standing against me,” he tells Sky News.
While he has received an interim payment he has not applied to a redress scheme.
“The GLO scheme – that’s there on the table for me to do,” he says, “but I know that they would use my original case, still standing against me, in any form of redress.
“So they would still tell me repeatedly that the court found me to be liable and therefore they only acted on the court’s outcome.”
He agrees with other victims who want the inquiry this week to recommend “taking the bad piece out” of redress schemes.
“The bad piece is the company – Post Office Limited,” he continues, “and the government – they need to be outside.
“When somebody goes to court, even if it’s a case against the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), when they go to court DBT do not decide what the outcome is.
“A judge decides, a third party decides, a right-minded individual a fair individual, that’s what needs to happen.”
Pic: AP
Mr Castleton is also taking legal action against the Post Office and Fujitsu – the first individual victim to sue the organisations for compensation and “vindication” in court.
“I want to hear why it happened, to hear what I believe to be the truth, to hear what they believe to be the truth and let the judge decide.”
Neil Hudgell, a lawyer for victims, said he expects the first inquiry report this week may be “really rather damning” of the redress claim process describing “inconsistencies”, “bureaucracy” and “delays”.
“The over-lawyeringness of it,” he adds, “the minute analysis, micro-analysis of detail, the inability to give people fully the benefit of doubt.
“All those things I think are going to be part and parcel of what Sir Wynn says about compensation.
“And we would hope, not going to say expect because history’s not great, we would hope it’s a springboard to an acceleration, a meaningful acceleration of that process.”
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June: Post Office knew about faulty IT system
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said they were “grateful” for the inquiry’s work describing “the immeasurable suffering” victims endured.
Their statement continued: “This government has quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters to provide them with full and fair redress, with more than £1bn having now been paid to thousands of claimants.
“We will also continue to work with the Post Office, who have already written to over 24,000 postmasters, to ensure that everyone who may be eligible for redress is given the opportunity to apply for it.”
Octopus Energy Group, Britain’s largest residential gas and electricity supplier, is plotting a £10bn demerger of its technology arm that would reinforce its status as one of the country’s most valuable private companies.
Sky News can exclusively reveal that Octopus Energy is close to hiring investment bankers to help formally separate Kraken Technologies from the rest of the group.
The demerger, which would be expected to take place in the next 12 months, would see Octopus Energy’s existing investors given shares in the newly independent Kraken business.
A minority stake in Kraken of up to 20% is expected to be sold to external shareholders in order to help validate the technology platform’s valuation, according to insiders.
One banking source said that Kraken could be valued at as much as $14bn (£10.25bn) in a forthcoming demerger.
Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are among the investment banks invited to pitch for the demerger mandate in recent weeks.
A deal will augment Octopus Energy chief executive Greg Jackson’s paper fortune, and underline his success at building a globally significant British-based company over the last decade.
Octopus Energy now has 7.5m retail customers in Britain, following its 2022 rescue of the collapsed energy supplier Bulb, and the subsequent acquisition of Shell’s home energy business.
In January, it announced that it had become the country’s biggest supplier – surpassing Centrica-owned British Gas – with a 24% market share.
It also has a further 2.5m customers outside the UK.
Kraken is an operating system licensed to other energy providers, water companies and telecoms suppliers. Pic: Octopus
Sources said a £10bn valuation of Kraken would now imply that the whole group, including the retail supply business, was worth in the region of £15bn or more.
That would be double its valuation of just over a year ago, when the company announced that it had secured new backing from funds Galvanize Climate Solutions and Lightrock.
Shortly before that, former US vice president Al Gore’s firm, Generation Investment Management, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased their stakes in Octopus Energy in a transaction valuing the company at $9bn (£7.2bn).
Kraken is an operating system which is licensed to other energy providers, water companies and telecoms suppliers.
It connects all parts of the energy system, including customer billing and the flexible management of renewable generation and energy devices such as heat pumps and electric vehicle batteries.
The business also unlocks smart grids which enable people to use more renewable energy when there is an abundant supply of it.
In the UK, its platform is licensed to Octopus Energy’s rivals EON and EDF Energy, as well as the water company Severn Trent and broadband provider Cuckoo.
Overseas, Kraken serves Origin Energy in Australia, Japan’s Tokyo Gas and Plentitude in countries including France and Greece.
Its biggest coup came recently, when it struck a deal with National Grid in the US to serve 6.5m customers in New York and Massachusetts.
Sources said other major licensing agreements in the US were expected to be struck in the coming months.
Kraken, which is chaired by Gavin Patterson, the former BT Group chief executive, is now contracted to more than 70m customer accounts globally – putting it easily on track to hit a target of 100m by 2027.
Earlier this year, Mr Jackson said that target now risked being seen as “embarrassingly unambitious”.
Last July, Kraken recruited Amir Orad, a former boss of NICE Actimize, a US-listed provider of enterprise software to global banks and Fortune 500 companies, as its first chief executive.
A demerger of Kraken will trigger speculation about an eventual public market listing of the business.
Its growth in the US, and the relative public market valuations of technology companies in New York and London, may put the UK at a disadvantage when Kraken eventually considers where to list.
One key advantage of demerging Kraken from the rest of Octopus Energy Group would be to remove the perception of a conflict of interest among potential customers of the technology platform.
A source said the unified corporate ownership of both businesses had acted as a deterrent to some energy suppliers.
Kraken has also diversified beyond the energy sector, and earlier this year joined a consortium which was exploring a takeover bid for stricken Thames Water.
This weekend, Octopus Energy declined to comment.
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