Plans to get property developers to pay for HS2’s London tunnel and station will fail, according to the National Infrastructure Commission chair.
Sir John Armitt, said developers would not fund the tunnel needed to connect Euston to the next HS2 terminus at Old Oak Common, dismissing comparisons with the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station.
Transport secretary Mark Harper told MPs last week that the Battersea regeneration had “levered in £9bn of private capital”, extended the Northern Line and “delivered a new Underground station by the private sector”.
“That’s a good indication of what’s possible [at Euston],” he told MPs.
But Armitt dismissed the comparison, saying that the bulk of that private investment at Battersea “was for real estate investment, rather than for the new Northern Line connection”.
