00:00 HS2 is the ultimate example of the old consensus.
00:06 The result is a project whose costs have more than doubled, which has been repeatedly delayed,
00:13 and it is not scheduled to reach here in Manchester for almost two decades, and for which the
00:19 economic case has massively been weakened with the changes to business travel post-Covid.
00:26 I say to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed, and the
00:32 right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction.
00:51 And so I am ending this long-running saga.
00:55 I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project.
01:02 And in its place, we will reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport
01:14 projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country.
01:17 This means £36 billion of investment in the projects that will make a real difference
01:23 across our nation.
01:26 (audience applauding)
Comments