Government has been urged to appoint a Minister with responsibility for economic growth and regeneration associated with building the High Speed 2 railway. The call comes from the HS2 Growth Taskforce, chaired by former Olympic Games organising committee chief Lord Deighton.

Appointment of a Minister is one of 19 recommendations made by the group in a report published on Friday. It also calls for each HS2 station to have a growth strategy in place before the end of 2014, to explain how high speed rail will generate jobs and encourage regeneration locally.

These strategies should, it adds, be led by local delivery bodies that must also be created before the end of the year.

The report also says that Government and Network Rail should set out by the end of 2014 their plan for defining how HS2 will affect rail services for cities off the high speed route. “There is growing awareness, but little certainty of the transformational impact HS2 will have on railway services across the country,” the report notes.

Government should also invite the rail freight industry to set out how it could take advantage of capacity released by HS2, the report adds.

“HS2 could be much more than a railway,” Lord Deighton says. “It could be an exciting and transformational opportunity, particularly for our cities in the Midlands and the North, to invest in our future economic growth.”

But, he warns: “We must not take a ‘build it and they will come’ attitude to HS2. It is up to all of us in the Government, local authorities, HS2 Ltd and UK businesses to make the most of this unique opportunity.”

(Photo: HS2)

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