Today Rishi Sunak announced that the HS2 leg north of Birmingham is to be cancelled, leaving Birmingham to London as the only remaining leg of the project.

Richard Farr, head of Compulsory Purchase at Sanderson Weatherall, who has been working with claimants on HS2 for years, commented:

“Much has been said with regard to the cancellation of HS2 north of Birmingham by many better qualified than I.

My message is simple, and it is ‘let cancellation truly mean cancellation’.

The shadow of HS2 in the form of a safeguarding corridor has existed for many years.  The corridor has brought with it, financial turmoil, commercial uncertainty and personal stress to numerous individuals and businesses who are not entitled to force the authority to buy their property and escape the blight.

When the Birmingham to Leeds leg of HS2 was cancelled in 2021 those in the safeguarding corridor naturally assumed that the blight they had lived with would be lifted.  This has proved not to be the case with sections of safeguarding being “transferred” to embryonic regional infrastructure projects with delivery dates far in the future.

My message is simple let cancellation carry with it the abolition of all HS2 safeguarding corridors or broaden entitlement to statutory blight and let the property owners sell to the authority and move on.”