The case for abandoning HS2 restated

The government release a claim that HS2 will bring 40,000 new jobs. They are so desperate to let the public know that figure they breach proper practice by briefing it ahead of the publication of the consultation document.

When the consultation document comes out, I will look at whether creating that number of jobs is actually impressive, for an investment of £17 billion. The wider economy produces four times as many jobs per pound of capital, so it actually doesn’t look very impressive at all.

Professor David Begg, eminent representative of an endangered quango, is furious though. He attacks me for making an unfair comparison. The 40,000 figure might be much higher if the new high speed rail line yields the transformative economic results claimed in the business case. And we shouldn’t be talking about jobs anyway, after all:

“We don’t appraise the value of, say, spending money building a new hospital only on the basis of the number of new nurses and doctors it will employ and nothing else.”