Some Parliamentary Questions on HS2

My colleague Steve Baker, MP for Wycombe, recently posted the below Parliamentary Questions on HS2 which I thought constituents may be interested to see.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of compensation payments to residents and businesses along the planned High Speed 2 route up to the beginning of train services on the route.

 As of September 2011, HS2 Ltd estimated the cost of land acquisition and compensation payments to be £965 million, for the first phase London to West Midlands route. This does not include discretionary or hardship-based acquisitions as these proposals are still under development and will be consulted on in the spring.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent estimate she has made of the total cost to her Department of work to prepare, draft and support the passage of the proposed legislation for High Speed 2.

 The total funding allocated as part of the spending review to HS2 was £773 million. It includes preparation for and passage of the Hybrid Bill as well as preparatory work for phase 2 of the network.