Closed petition Cancel HS2 and use the money to cover the health costs of Covid 19

Closed on 7 June 2021

The Government should cancel HS2 and reallocate the funds to public sector bodies and the NHS who are tackling the health and social care effects of Covid-19.

I believe that in both economic and environmental terms HS2 is no longer a viable project. As we suffer the ongoing fallout from Covid-19 there is increasingly less justification for a project that will only benefit a small number of people who can afford the ticket price. HS2 has at best only enjoyed lukewarm support amongst a small number of the general public and substantial challenges from the large numbers of people opposed to it. Now, in the post-Covid world, the country's priorities have greatly changed. The Government should acknowledge that we have more pressing concerns, and better ways of spending HS2's £108bn 2020 budget, than saving 30 minutes on the journey from Leeds to London.