HS2 flip-flop will damage UK’s reputation with international investors | Nils Pratley

Verdict from overseas will probably range from hilarity to derision as second northern leg is scrapped

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How will the great HS2 flip-flop look from abroad? Consider the history of this project. It was planned for a full decade and, despite projected costs rising with every update, the Conservative party leadership and parliament backed it all the way. Sceptics (including this column, often) who thought an east-west link in the north offered more bang for fewer bucks had to concede that HS2 had broad cross-party support.

Then in 2020, when the bills were about to bite as serious work started on the ground, ministers took another look. The outcome? Another green signal. The government recommitted in the knowledge that its own reviewer, Sir Douglas Oakervee, had said only a full Y-shaped design, with two northern legs, made economic sense.