The HS2 fallout - Business headlines with Greg Wright - video Dailymotion

The latest business headlines with Greg Wright

Transcript

00:00 Hello, my name is Greg Wright. I'm the Deputy Business Editor of the Yorkshire Post,

00:04 and here are your business headlines for this morning.

00:07 Former Prime Minister David Cameron has criticised the announcement made by Rishi Sunak

00:13 at the Conservative Party conference that sections of HS2 are going to be scrapped.

00:18 In a speech at the Conservative Party conference, Mr Sunak confirmed that HS2 will run from Euston

00:24 in central London to Birmingham, but will no longer extend beyond the West Midlands,

00:28 with Manchester among the areas missing out. Instead, Mr Sunak promised to use £36 billion

00:35 of savings from scrapping sections of HS2 to fund a raft of other transport schemes.

00:41 He told backers of HS2 that the facts have changed and there's a need for courage to change direction.

00:47 However, the former Prime Minister David Cameron described the decision as the wrong one,

00:53 adding it will help to fuel the views of those who argue that we can no longer think or act for

00:58 the long term as a country, and that we're heading in the wrong direction.

01:03 HS2 is about investing for the long term, Mr Cameron said, bringing the countries together,

01:08 ensuring a more balanced economy and delivering the Northern Powerhouse. We achieved historic

01:13 cross-party support with extensive buy-in from city and local authority leaders across

01:18 the Midlands and the north of England. And Mr Cameron said the announcement

01:22 throws away 15 years of cross-party consensus, sustained over six administrations,

01:27 will make it much harder to build consensus for any future long-term project. So,

01:32 stern words there from David Cameron, criticising the decision by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

01:37 to announce that sections of HS2 are going to be scrapped.

01:41 My name is Greg Wright and I'm the Deputy Business Editor of the Yorkshire Post.