• HS2 may no longer be grabbing headlines, but the damage and disruption it will cause has barely begun.

Following its approval in parliament in 2017, the government gave the green light to a project that will see homes destroyed, roads shut off, and traffic chaos as a regular feature of life along the route.

With HS2 Ltd now free from the shackles of any serious legislative scrutiny, I am determined to continue holding officials to account as work begins within my constituency.

Unfortunately this task is made difficult by HS2’s apparent unwillingness to be frank with communities that will be affected by construction.

I am concerned by the escalating nature of the steps that my constituents feel compelled to take, simply in order to extract basic information from HS2 officials about the work being planned in their area.

Take Alexandra Place, where residents have taken HS2 to task over the possibility of new structures being considered only a matter of months after being told that construction would not be necessary.

Residents have repeatedly told me that HS2 are opaque and seemingly inconsistent in their efforts to communicate what is actually going to happen to homes and roads.

Some have found themselves resorting to Freedom of Information requests, which can take up to a month to provide a response. This is a completely unacceptable state of affairs.

Of many amendments I supported during the debates in parliament, one was to create an office for an independent adjudicator for HS2.

This would have provided a clear means to both submit complaints and seek redress from HS2 for disruption and damage. As with most other efforts by MPs to establish lasting scrutiny for the project, the proposal failed.

All too often the debate over HS2 is fixated on its enormous costs and its obvious lack of value for British taxpayers.

I am of the firm view that far greater attention needs to be given to the apparent disregard with which HS2 treats those whose homes and lives are to be blighted by the project’s construction.

TULIP SIDDIQ MP
Labour, Hampstead & Kilburn