Has Rishi Sunak revealed the government’s plan for HS2?

One of Boris Johnson’s first acts as Prime Minister was to announce a review of HS2. With a panel of critics and supporters, the review has so far conducted its work quietly, with little sign of what its final assessment will be. But at a Conservative party fringe event last night, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak gave a hint to where the government’s own sympathies may lie. Tackling a question on HS2, he made a clear distinction between phase 1 from London to Birmingham – ‘the bit that’s causing all the controversy at the moment’ – and phase 2b – which would take the route from Birmingham into Manchester on one branch, and into Yorkshire on the other. He said:

‘Birmingham to London – the original thesis for investing in that line is capacity… Economics would tell you that there’s probably a higher return for the things that do that than just increasing capacity from Birmingham to London.