Work on a new high speed railway from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds can continue after a High Court judge today threw out attempts to derail the crucial scheme.

In a landmark victory for HS2 in one of the biggest judicial reviews ever faced by a government, of the ten broad areas of challenge presented against HS2 Phase One (from London to Birmingham) by four sets of claimants, The Hon Mr Justice Ouseley ruled categorically in the Government’s favour on nine of these.

The judge agreed it was lawful for the Government to choose to rule out upgrading the existing network as a credible alternative to HS2 – noting that a patch and mend approach fails to meet the Government’s objectives of providing a long term boost to capacity and economic growth.

He also found that the Government’s approach to consultation on the HS2 strategy/Phase One route, environmental assessment and consideration of the impact on habitats and protected species, had all been carried out fairly and lawfully. The 15 local authorities challenging the Secretary of State for Transport lost on all seven grounds of challenge they attempted. The government will be seeking to recoup legal costs from the claimants.

The one area where a challenge was upheld concerned the way in which the property compensation consultation had been carried out, not the merits of the policies. In order to save time and public money and to limit the impact on residents affected, the Secretary of State has decided that instead of appealing this decision it will re-run this consultation in line with the judge’s finding that further consideration should have been given to other potential compensation models. A re-run property compensation consultation will not affect the HS2 construction timetable in any way.

 

To read the DfT release in full please click here.