That Green Party Conference motion in full

 On the 4th of October 2023, the Prime Minister announced that Phase 2 of HS2 would be cancelled due to escalating costs. It is said that cancelling the Birmingham to Manchester part of HS2 would save £36bn, which is more than the £33bn that the whole scheme connecting London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Manchester, with links to HS1 and Heathrow was originally meant to cost.

At this point it seems uncertain as to what will happen to land which was compulsory purchased for cancelled parts of the scheme.

While there are differing views in the party about HS2, we should all be able to unite and agree that this situation is a national scandal.

The most recently published board minutes for HS2 Ltd show that the Government-owned quango intended to only reveal the costs of Phase 2b of the project after Parliament had voted to approve it, reminiscent of when Ministers withheld the fact they knew HS2 could not be delivered for the then £55bn budget when MPs voted to approve Phase 1 in 2015.

As such, conference requests the Green Party Parliamentary representatives to call for a full public inquiry into the Conservative Government’s mismanagement of the project. The scope should cover:

    Lack of oversight and regulation of HS2 finances
    The mismanagement of the Euston rebuild, including the government continually redesigning that has caused billions of extra costs and left residents with a building site for years longer than necessary, and the newly announced plans to descope Euston to 6 platforms and use the land for commercial development, severely restricting the potential for future services to the North of England and Scotland
    The removal of safeguarding of the route, effectively an attempt to sabotage future governments
    The redirecting of funds from HS2 cancellation to road building schemes which is incompatible with the Climate Emergency