New report says HS2 is already changing Britain

The Chairman of HS2 has said that it is already changing Britain and the way we plan for the future.

David Higgins has said that HS2 is already changing the way private investors, as well as local and central government plan for the future in Britain. But he has also said HS2 must help change the way that infrastructure is delivered, so that the country can benefit from future projects such as Hinckley Point.

The potential for the transformation is outlined in a report published yesterday – HS2: Changing Britain.

The Chairman made his comments in a speech in Manchester, marking the second anniversary of the launch of his first report in the city.

In that two years, he said, not only had the concept of re-balancing the British economy taken root, people were beginning the process of making it a reality, helped by the moves towards devolution.

Local authorities and enterprise partnerships in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, the North West, the East and West Midlands and Yorkshire were using HS2 not just to rethink their transport systems, but also how they attract private investment to their areas – and business has responded.

Companies such as Burberry in Leeds, HSBC in Birmingham, Interserve in Solihull are beginning to recognise the benefits of the extra connectivity and capacity that HS2 will deliver – as are potential investors elsewhere.

The report also outlines how HS2 is changing the perceptions and ambitions of the next generation quoting Cheshire East councillor, Rachel Bailey, as saying that it is already having a tangible effect in Crewe.

“That difference is being felt in schools because it is helping to lift pupils’ horizons, particularly on skills.”

Sir David said that a series of factors make the UK industry less cost effective with a history of stop/go which prevented firms investing in skills, innovation and technology: fragmentation leading to multiple overhead costs plus a lack of co-ordination between design and construction.

He went on to say that HS2 was determined to adopt a new approach which would bear down on those factors and transform the way we deliver infrastructure in this country, without compromising HS2’s strategic objective to re-balance the British economy.

The approach would include earlier contractor involvement to drive innovation and efficiencies in design and methodology, and adopting enabling works contracts to clear the line of route ahead of the main civils works. There would also be incentives for companies to out-perfom, and techniques new to the country such as linear construction, which uses the newly constructed route as a supply chain access.

Sir David said the lessons learnt from applying this approach to Phase One would be then be transferred to Phase Two.

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