Andy Street has launched an eleventh-hour attempt to save the Manchester leg of HS2, calling for the property developers and the private sector to take over the scheme.
The Conservative West Midlands mayor and former John Lewis boss is understood to have urged the prime minister to strip the government-owned organisation HS2 Ltd of control over the multi-billion-pound scheme and instead put a development corporation in charge.
In meetings on Tuesday, Street was racing to build support for his proposal among businesses attending the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
Manchester-based developer Bruntwood was said to be involved, along with cement maker Cemex, tech firm Siemens, account EY and engineering consultancy Arup, alongside engineering firms Arcadis and Mace.
Rishi Sunak is expected to announce in his keynote speech to the conference in Manchester today that he is scrapping the Birmingham to Manchester leg of the high-speed rail link. He is expected to pledge that the £35bn that would have been spent on the leg will be allocated to other transport projects in the north of England.
Chris Oglesby, chief executive at Bruntwood, said scrapping HS2 north of Birmingham would be a “catastrophic decision” and could lead to a huge hike in fares.
The Euston terminus at the southern end of the line will still be built, following a successful rear-guard action by chancellor Jeremy Hunt. There had been speculation that the line would terminate at Old Oak Common.
