Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the numbers of properties acquired by HS2 to enable the construction; and how many of those properties (a) are empty and (b) have been let and how much rental income of those properties was; and how many of those properties have required repairs or renovations and what the cost of those repairs or renovations was.

We have acquired 529 properties within the current safeguarded area across the more than 300-mile-long HS2 route. Of those properties 262 are currently let and provided £3,066,662 of rental income in financial year 2018/19. The annualised rent roll for the total residential property portfolio - including the property in safeguarding - is currently £10,953,843.

All the properties acquired are likely to require a level of compliance, repair or refurbishment works prior to letting. As a competent landlord, we have a responsibility to ensure the properties we let are safe and are compliant. The residential properties we acquire have all been occupied by the previous owner and as such all have a degree of compliant work required, such as fire safety, to ensure they can be let without risk of harm to our tenants.

The cost of the works relating to the total residential property portfolio was £18,541,003 in financial year 2018/19.