High Speed 2 to Birmingham (Source: NCE 26 January 2012)
Britain’s £32bn High Speed 2 (HS2) line remains viable even though the economic case for the project has worsened, transport experts and politicians said this week. But they stressed that the project will only deliver value for money if the full Y network is built. The amended scheme that includes additional tunnelling through the Chilterns and other sensitive locations. The cost of the entire Y network running from London to Birmingham and then to Manchester and Leeds is now estimated at £32.7bn.
Weak economy
But documents published alongside the Transport Secretary’s announcement showed that the benefit to cost ratio for the first £18.8bn stretch of the line from London to the West Midlands has been revised down again to 1.4 to 1. The benefit to cost ratio of the full Y network including Manchester and Leeds also dropped in the latest update. But at 1.6 to 1 it is still higher than that which would apply to building section one without section two.
The fundamental reason the economic case has weakened is the poor economic climate since the UK is in the weakest position and worst place it’s been in for a while,” commented a high speed lobby group.
The House of Commons Transport Committee have sought assurances that any hybrid bill for the project includes powers to build the full Y network serving Manchester and Leeds as this would improve the economic case. A hybrid bill to enable construction of the first section of the route is due to be introduced to parliament by 2013/2014. 
A detailed route for the second phase has yet to be decided. Rapid work is needed to firm up the route of phase two, for a detailed route to be settled on by the end of 2014. To meet this timetable the Department for Transport said it wants to receive advice from HS2 on the route options for phase 2 by March 2012.
This will be the first time that a proper alignment of the route for the remaining Y route between the West Midlands and Manchester and Leeds, including intermediate stations, will be determined. It will then carry out a period of engagement and consultation to inform the choice of a preferred route.
Assuming the hybrid bill for the first section is brought to Parliament by the end of 2013, the government hopes to receive Royal Assent by 2015. Construction would begin soon after, with the first leg between London and the West Midlands, including a connection to Heathrow airport and High Speed 1 is expected to be ready by 2026.
The Y legs further north to Manchester and Leeds could be open in 2032/2033, the government said. The construction is timed to follow on from Crossrail, thus lessening the impact on taxpayers. The expenditure highs don’t begin until 2017. Only £750M is expected to be spent in the current Parliament, largely on detailed design and work to prepare the Environmental Impact Assessment.
Tunnelled solutions to mitigate HS2 impact (Source: Ground Engineering, February 2012)
Greater use of tunnels is to be made to mitigate the effects of the newly approved High Speed 2 rail line. But tunnels will only be built along parts of the controversial Chilterns section of the route. .
Phase one now has a total of 36km in tunnels and another 90km of the route will be placed in cuttings. The tunnelled sections include a 4.4km bored tunnel through north west London to avoid major works to the Chilterns Line, a continuous tunnel from the M25 through the Chilterns to near Amersham and extension of another tunnelled section through the Chilterns and a longer tunnel through villages north of Banbury.
Campaigners against HS2 said the whole 21km section through the Chilterns should be placed in tunnels.
Department for Transport press release (10 January 2012)
http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/press-releases/dft-news-20120110
HS2 Route Maps
http://www.dft.gov.uk/publications/hs2-maps-20120110/
About the maps
This set of maps provides a detailed depiction of the HS2 London to West Midlands line of route.
The bottom portion of each map depicts the profile of the line in relation to the ground - for example, showing where the line is in a cutting or on an embankment, bridge or viaduct.
Key plan map: Entire post consultation route, showing which maps covers which area – drawing number HS2-APR-00-DR-RW-05000
South Northamptonshire
Map 15: Route from Mixbury to Turweston drawing Number. HS2-APR-00-DR-RW-05015
Map 16: Route from Radstone to Greatworth drawing Number. HS2-APR-00-DR-RW-05016
Map 17: Route from Greatworth to Edgcote drawing Number. HS2-APR-00-DR-RW-05017
High Speed Two Rail Link - Timeline
The Government hopes to open the HS2 line between London and the west Midlands in 2026, with lines to Manchester and Leeds opening in 2032-2033 (http://www.hs2.org.uk/)
• October 2013 - May 2015: Take hybrid bill through Parliament.
Pressure Groups: www.yestohs2.co.uk; www.stophs2.org
Cheryl Gillan defends selling Amersham home near HS2 rail route (BBC News, 16 January 2011)
Cheryl Gillan has previously opposed the HS2 plan
Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan has sold her home close to the planned High Speed 2 rail route. The sale went through two months before the UK government approved the project. Mrs Gillan sold the 17th Century terraced house in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in November for £320,000.
Her spokesman said the house had been on the market since June 2010 and went for 20% under the original price. It is about 500 yards from the route of the London to Birmingham section of HS2, which was given the green light last week by Transport Secretary Justine Greening.
Opposition
Mrs Gillan has previously threatened to resign over HS2 with opponents in her Chesham and Amersham constituency saying it will blight the area. Last week she said "good progress" had been made in mitigating the impact of the new line with tunnels.
A spokesman said she sold the house because neither Mrs Gillan, who has mobility problems after an illness in 2006, nor her 84-year-old husband were able to use the stairs. "It had nothing whatsoever to do with HS2," he said.
Available rented housing cuts (Source: The Guardian, 2 January 2012)
The cuts to housing benefit in January will leave many people searching for cheaper places to stay.
Almost 800,000 homes will become off limits to poor people relying on housing benefit to pay the rent because of government cuts to welfare payments that begin to bite in January, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Housing.
For first time more people on benefits will be chasing homes than the market currently provides. The choice for the poor is a pretty terrible one: to stay might be to borrow more or stop buying essential items such as food. This will mean that more than 1.3 million private tenants face the New Year with dread facing an uncomfortable prospect of homelessness or debt.
Only a minority will be job seekers the rest will be disabled, lone parents, others unable to work such as pensioners or those in low paid employment. In fact DWP statistics show that in March 2010 out of 1,015,000 LHA claimants the number in low paid employment (252,000) exceeded the number who were jobseekers (221,000).
Data for Northampton
Region ID VOA ID CIH ID Broad rental market area
EM 4 104 53 Northampton
Shared 1 bed 2 bed 3 bed 4 bed 5 bed
30th percentile (New entitlement – January 2012)
£51.57 £92.31 £117.69 £132.69 £178.85 Not eligible
50th percentile (previous entitlement)
£55.00 £102.69 £126.92 £138.46 £196.15 £276.92
Commuter pain as rail fare rises take effect (Source BBC News, 2 January 2012)
Rail commuters preparing to return to work after the Christmas break face fare rises of up to 11% from Monday, watchdog Passenger Focus has said. Chief executive Anthony Smith said they should not have to keep paying for a "fractured, inefficient industry". The annual rise will see the average price of regulated fares, such as season tickets, increase by 6% (Annual season tickets between Northampton and London, rose by 6.9% to £4,756)
The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), said money raised through fares helped pay for improved services. Currently, passengers contribute about £6.5bn to the running of the railways, with taxpayers picking up the remaining £4bn.
Labour urged ministers to stop train operators using "flexible" rules which allow them to hike unregulated fares well over 6% so long as the overall average fare increase does not exceed that figure.
'Commuters clobbered'
Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle said commuters already struggling with an increased cost of living were in for an "unwelcome new year surprise" when they saw the new price of their rail tickets. She said: "Commuters are being clobbered by train operating companies' vested interests, who are only interested in making as much money as possible and not in the interests of the passengers."
BBC correspondent Graham Satchell said big questions are now being asked about why it costs 30% more to run the railway in Britain than elsewhere in Europe. But he said passengers would face fare rises of inflation plus 3% for each of the next two years.
Shadow Home Office minister, Stella Creasy, is calling for a review of the effects cuts in street lighting are having on women's safety ” (Source: The Guardian, 22 December 2011)
Stella Creasy named six county councils - Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, Essex, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire - which are cutting back on street lighting. She thinks this is a gamble with public safety. The Tory-led government is being breathtakingly complacent in allowing street lights to be turned off across the country without doing any review of the effects on crime, and people's perception of crime. David Cameron's government doesn't seem to care that women working shifts, or returning from an evening out, could be put at risk as they walk home in the dark. On the longest night of the year Labour is calling on the government to urgently review the effects of this gamble with women's safety.
PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Glenis Willmott MEP (Centre) enjoying tea & cakes with some local Labour Party members
Glenis Willmott the Leader of the Labour Party in the European Parliament was guest of honour at a party in an Abthorpe garden on Saturday 11 June 2011 organised by South Northamptonshire Constituency Labour Party. Surrounded by local Labour Party members enjoying tea and cakes, Glenis thanked them for flying the party flag in what she admitted was a very blue area of her East Midlands Euro Constituency.
On hearing the sound of high powered motorcycles wafting across the fields from the Moto Grand Prix she explained that her home was close to Donington circuit that had lost the right to host the Formula One Grand Prix. But Donington’s loss was South Northamptonshire’s gain and it would be a tremendous boost for our local economy.
In a wide ranging discussion with party members Glenis stated that across the whole of the East Midlands, Labour’s local election results were fantastic. Some local party members commented that the lesson learned here in South Northamptonshire was that our candidates must be active and embedded in their local communities if they were to have chance of winning. Glenis remarked that Ed Miliband was leading the reorganisation of the party and its policies and it was hoped this would reinvigorate the party both locally and nationally.
Marching for an Alternative to cuts: Jobs – Growth - Justice
The March for the Alternative to cuts saw up to half a million gather in London on Saturday, 26 March 2011 to protest the government's plans for fast, deep public spending cuts. 
Say No to unfair and unnecessary spending cuts - SNCLP Members at the TUC rally
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