Too big to rail

The failed northern leg of HS2 has left landowners in the lurch. Lucy Denton reports on what happens next

- Lucy Denton & James Fisher

IT'S gone from consultation to confrontaCavenagh-Mainwaring, tion,' says Edward landowner and farmer of the Whitmore Hall estate in Staffordshire, 260 acres of which was acquired by HS2 Ltd only days before the intended route of the phase 2a section was axed. 'I feel the compulsory purchase process is blunted,' he explains, and it's bruising. It's never going to be easy, but if I'm going to fall on the sword of national interest, I expect to be paid fairly, and not have to fight for compensation. And it is a constant fight with HS2 for what has been lost.' He is not alone in his concerns, not only about why HS2 went ahead, but what happens now.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's shelving of the second leg of what was billed as Europe's largest infrastructure project, originally intended to connect Birmingham with Manchester via a high-speed railway route, is a big relief for many, but little consolation for others. The aftermath has revealed a patchwork of compound effects-from run-down buildings and redundant land to severed farms and faltering optimism for economic renaissance and the Northern Powerhouse, all at the cost of multi-millions from the public purse. "There isn't compensation for the emotional loss of land you have looked after, adds Mr CavenaghMainwaring, 'or for your future plans for it.' Some are thoroughly dismayed, including Cheshire East Council with its plans for Crewe, intended as a focal point of $750 million worth of regeneration as part of the development. 'The full consequences facing Crewe and the borough following the decision to scrap Phases 2a and 2b of HS2 are unknown and they may not be understood for several years, but the economic opportunity cost alone is unprecedented', says a council spokesperson.