£600m may be wasted on HS2 homes buy-up

Almost £600m of public money has already been spent buying up land and homes for HS2 in the north of England, despite uncertainty over whether the train line will ever get beyond Birmingham

- Helen Pidd

The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on Thursday repeatedly refused to commit to taking the HS2 line to Manchester, amid concerns that the project's cost could exceed £100bn, three times the original estimate.

So far, almost £423m has been spent buying up 424 properties on the western leg from Birmingham to Manchester, despite there being no spades in the ground on that imperilled section. Of that, £219m has been spent on the Birmingham to Crewe section and £204m on Crewe to Manchester, the Guardian has learned. 

Among those to sell up was the comedian John Bishop, who reportedly sold his mansion in the Cheshire village of Whatcroft for £6.8m in 2019.

Meanwhile, £164m has gone towards buying 530 "blighted" properties on the eastern leg to Leeds, which was "paused" in November 2021. That includes brand new houses on the Shimmer estate in Mexborough, near Doncaster, which was not on the original maps that HS2 engineers used to plot the route.

Homeowners living on the eastern route can still apply to sell up to HS2 because the land remains "safeguarded" should a future government decide to fund and build it.