Transport: HS2

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Tuesday 26th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton]

My Lords, transport is not my area. However, I was pressed to find out more about the HS2 project after receiving worrying letters from disabled people, who will disproportionately suffer under the current proposals.

I shall seek to explain quickly. On reading the various government reports on HS2 and campaign literature on the issue, I was struck by the lack of detail regarding social impacts. I searched for the equality impact assessment and, again, failed to find anything that reflects any serious thinking. I came across only a short document that looks purely at passenger numbers by equality group.

For a £33 billion project, this seems grossly insufficient. A proper impact assessment, for example, would look at the population profile and pick up cultural groups or disabled people who may be forced to move away from the support of family or community. The voluntary purchase scheme applies only to properties within an arbitrary 120 metres of the line. It does not apply at all in urban areas. An elderly woman, now in residential care, is attempting to sell her home to fund that care. She was thrilled to find a couple who wanted to buy. Imagine her distress when they were turned down for a mortgage because HS2 meant the house had no value. No value—yet, at 400 metres away, she is not entitled to any compensation.

None of the schemes for compulsory or voluntary purchase, or the long-term hardship scheme, addresses the additional costs that disabled people may face because of the need to adapt new properties. This can include widening doorways or installing accessible kitchens and bathrooms. These are substantial costs that a disabled person would face if they had to move as a result of HS2.

I heard from a family where both parents are disabled. They are raising a two year-old daughter. The father is a wheelchair user and has respiratory difficulties. The dust and mud during construction would undoubtedly worsen his condition. It has taken many years for them to earn enough to adapt their home in order to have a child. As the father says:

“It is the one place in the world where I don’t feel disabled; where we can raise our child independently”.

They are just outside the arbitrary 120 metres from the planned line itself. HS2 is destroying the future they have so painstakingly put in place. I can hardly bear to think about it.

The Minister may say there is a hardship scheme, whereby if someone meets very exacting criteria, they might just about get the value of their property, but nothing more. When I looked further, however, I found reports of people being turned down for this scheme. One family was turned down despite the likely distress that the construction would cause to their autistic son. To allay their concerns, I would be grateful if the Minister would clarify whether there has been a full equality impact assessment of the project as a whole.

In conclusion, would the Minister be prepared to meet the family I mentioned? If he listens to their concerns, I am sure that he would want an opportune and appropriate equality impact assessment. It is their story that inspired me to investigate an initiative that would normally pass me by. I found it very wanting and I am glad to be able to share my concerns with noble Lords this evening. I would not be here after 7 pm otherwise.