At least £22. 5 billion has already been spent building the london to birmingham section, while over £2 billion has gone towards the second phase on things such as buying up land and property. Labour manchester mayor andy burnham said ditching the manchester link would be a permanent statement to people in the north that they were second class citizens when it came to transport. Lets discuss the pros and cons. Joining me now is Alexandra Hall chen, whos the principal Policy Advisor for sustainability, skills, and employment at the institute of directors. Good morning to you. This has been such a contentious story. Ever since the leaks came out weeks ago about the future for hsz. What weeks ago about the future for hs2. What do you make of this decision on the part of the government . Decision on the part of the government . The key here is about stability government . The key here is about stability and about stability and Policy Making. Any instability in the business environment, i
Brighter with a few showers and it is still going to be worn this weekend. Its wednesday the 4th of october. After weeks of speculation, the Prime Minister is expected to use his leaders speech at the conservative Party Conference to confirm that hes scrapping the second leg of h52 from birmingham to manchester. Labours andy burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, accused the government of treating people in the north as Second Class Citizens, while the West Midlands mayor andy street, a conservative, was said to be distraught. Our Political Correspondent Damian Grammaticas reports from the conference in manchester. Pushing his way through the late night conference crowds, rishi sunak, relaxed and smiling. He has, it seems, made his mind up. Its the end of h52 to manchester. This was what the pm was saying 2a hours ago. What i want to do is make the right decision for the country. This is an enormous amount of peoples money, taxpayers money, everybody watching, billions and billions