Jeremy Hunt has told the Treasury Select Committee why he kept the HS2 line going to Manchester instead of listening to a Policy Exchange report saying it would be better value to have it going from West London to Birmingham.
Despite massive overspending and delays, Mr Hunt committed in the autumn statement to keeping the longer route.
“We’ve long had infrastructure that’s inferior to peer countries and if we want to be the most prosperous economy in Europe we need to fix these problems,” the chancellor said.
He added that there is a problem with how the British government implements large infrastructure projects and said the failure to have good national infrastructure is the key reason why regional imbalances in wealth exist.
Putting in good transport links will mean people can take benefit of a better way of living without having to move to London or the southeast, he said.
Source: Skynews.com