Taxpayers Alliance: HS2 could see jobs moved out of Coventry

[dutchman]

The Taxpayers Alliance think fewer jobs could be created in Coventry if the government goes ahead and builds a High Speed Rail line through Warwickshire.



The group is today releasing research it claims shows the £17 billion London to Birmingham route will cost four jobs for every one it creates.

Director Matthew Sinclair says the fact it reduce journey times to around 50 minutes simply isn’t worth the price-tag and won’t bring the economic benefits the government is expecting:

“Any way you spend £17 billion is going to create jobs – £17 billion on gold statues of Phillip Hammond would create jobs.

“The question is will it create a lot more jobs than that money would if it was spent anywhere in the wider economy.

“The government have claimed that High Speed Rail will create 40,000 jobs, but 9,000 of those are going to be in construction and therefore temporary.”

“A lot more of them may well come from jobs being moved from one part of the country, even one part of a region to another, so jobs moving from say Coventry to Birmingham.”