QUICK PROFITS FROM HS2 AXE

Route blight homes bring in £9m in rent

- BRENDAN MCFADDEN

HS2 is raking in almost £9million a year renting out hundreds of homes it forced people to sell.

The railway splashed out around £600m in taxpayer cash on land and property for the northern leg.

But phase two, linking with Birmingham Manchester, was scrapped by Rishi Sunak in October.

Figures obtained via a Freedom of Information request revealed HS2 is letting out at least 710 properties in Staffordshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire.