Read the “Network North” section of the government’s briefing document on the scrapping of HS2 and I suspect there is little that you would condemn. There are plans to deliver the West Yorkshire mass transit system, a new line and station for Bradford and funding for the Midlands rail hub. The problem is that these necessary investments have come at the cost of HS2 – something successive governments have promised to build. The decision is depressing for business. Cross-party consensus delivers the certainty upon which investment decisions can be made. Why can’t politicians, one fund manager said to me this week, stick to a plan for 20 or 30 years? That’s democracy.
Politically, Rishi Sunak is trying to break down consensus in the hope that he can define his premiership against what has come before. His party’s reputation is too bad to defend. As I wrote yesterday, this is the right strategy. The key problem for the Prime Minister is that these decisions don’t reflect the immediate priorities of voters. Nor can Sunak escape the impression that he is scaling back rather than building the future.
Content from our partners
