This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared in advance of the second reading in the House of Lords of the High Speed Rail (West Midlands–Crewe) Bill on 4 September 2019.
High Speed Rail (West Midlands–Crewe) Bill: Briefing for Lords Stages (345 KB , PDF)
The High Speed Rail (West Midlands–Crewe) Bill would provide approval for phase 2a of the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway line. Phase 2a would run between the West Midlands, where it would link with phase 1 of HS2, and Crewe. It has a target completion date of 2027 and it is estimated it will cost £3.5 billion. The legislation granting the powers to construct phase 1 was granted royal assent in 2017.
The Government has said that HS2 and phase 2a will provide greater rail capacity and faster journey times, and boost economic growth across the whole country.
The bill would provide for all necessary aspects of building the line. These include planning provisions, powers for compulsory purchase and use of land, compensation arrangements and the disapplication of existing controls. The bill also contains detailed maps, plans and descriptions of the route.
The bill is a hybrid bill, meaning that it has characteristics of both a public bill and a private bill. It has additional stages compared to a public bill, which provide opportunities for the public to comment on it and petition against it.
The bill was introduced into the House of Commons on 17 July 2017 and completed its Commons stages on 15 July 2019. Some changes were made to the route following the public consultations, but no amendments were made during the public bill stages in the Commons. The bill is due to receive its second reading in the House of Lords on 4 September 2019.
Issues that have been raised about HS2 and phase 2a in particular include:
On 21 August 2019, the Government announced details of a review into all aspects of HS2 to provide advice on “whether and how to proceed” with the project. It is expected to report in autumn 2019.
High Speed Rail (West Midlands–Crewe) Bill: Briefing for Lords Stages (345 KB , PDF)
Ahead of a debate in the House of Lords on the report of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee on electrical vehicles (EVs), this briefing summarises the recommendations of the report, the response to the report by the previous Conservative government, and the EVs policy of the current Labour government.
This briefing is the fifth of a series on the post-war history of the UK economy. The series proceeds decade-by-decade from the 1950s onwards, providing an overview of the key macroeconomic developments of each decade. This fifth briefing looks at the 1990s. In this decade the UK economy settled into a period of low inflation and steady growth; however, living standards growth was lower and more regionally concentrated than in previous decades.
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