Axa Real Estate’s and Friends Life’s eleventh-hour bid to save a major regeneration scheme in Birmingham looks set to be steamrollered by HS2.
The former LDV van site at Washwood Heath (pictured) was being lined up for redevelopment by Axa, which had already completed demolition and site preparation works.
The site accounts for one-third of Birmingham’s industrial land supply and Axa’s proposals had been expected to create as many as 4,000 jobs.
However, plans have been on hold since HS2 earmarked the site for its 100-acre maintenance depot for the £50bn North-South rail link.
Axa was among several landlords that petitioned against the plan, including St Modwen and Hansteen, arguing that Washwood Heath was an expensive and impractical depot location.
In a statement to the High Speed Rail (London-West Midlands) Commons select committee, Axa and Friends Life’s lawyer Berwin Leighton Paisner said: “There are other more suitable locations for the works proposed which are better operationally, more cost-effective, reduce pressure for release of land from the green belt and which preserve the opportunity to create nearly 4,000 jobs.”
Their campaign is supported by Birmingham city council and local MP Liam Byrne, who warned that vast tracts of green belt land would have to be given over for industrial development if Washwood Heath was subsumed by HS2.
However, HS2 argued that Washwood Heath was the most cost-effective location for the depot and it would not necessitate green belt development.
In a letter to the committee this week, HS2 director Roger Hargreaves said Washwood Heath would cost £374.9m to build, whereas Axa’s suggested alternatives at Birmingham Interchange or Chelmsley Wood would cost £453m and £412.2m respectively.
He said: “The petitioners seek to overstate the land acquisition costs for Washwood Heath over and above those costs which are directly attributable to the land required for the [depot] itself.”
