Work stopped on the Euston section of HS2 earlier this year

THE prime minister yesterday (Wednesday) unveiled plans to let 10,000 new luxury homes be built on the HS2 railway site.

Rishi Sunak finally ended weeks of speculation as to whether High Speed 2 would ever reach Camden by telling the Conservative ­Party conference that the route would go all the way to central London.

But, as he cancelled the Manchester arm of the crisis-hit project, he announced huge changes to what will happen to the land already flattened around Euston station.

Mr Sunak revealed it will be sold off to the private sector to raise billions of pounds for transport projects across the country – a move which was immediately seen as milking Camden dry to pay for overdue infrastructure projects in the north. There was little expectation of much social housing being included and instead a gold rush was predicted as developers’ eyes lit up at a prize opportunity to stack up expensive private homes which could go for millions.

The prime minister said “thousands of new homes for next generation of home-owners”would be built above and around the HS2 terminus site in Euston that would bring in £6.5billion.

He said the government would then reinvest this cash to “every region” of the country. It was suggested the redevelopment at Euston would end up dwarfing the facelift seen on the King’s Cross railwaylands where some of the world’s biggest tech firms have moved in and penthouse flats in the old gasholders were marketed at £7million.

By 4pm yesterday (Wednesday) and little more than a couple of hours after Mr Sunak had come off stage, a Department for Transport policy paper, called Network North, had been published. It revealed a basic outline of a plan to “strip back the Euston project and deliver a station that works”.

This document said: “We will not provide a tunnel between Euston and Euston Square underground station or design features we do not need. “Instead we will deliver a six-platform station which can accommodate the trains we will run to Birmingham and onwards and which best supports regeneration of the local area.”

It added: “We will transform the Euston quarter with the potential to unlock as many as 10,000 much-needed homes in London – five times as many as the nearby success story in King’s Cross.”

It opens up a potential bonanza for developers as 60 acres of land, much of which has been compulsory purchased by the Department for Transport after the High Speed Rail Act came into force in 2017.

It will be sold-off to “Development Corporation” in a similar set-up to the privately-run King’s Cross.

“This will accelerate the project, significantly reduce and focus its scope, and leverage private sector investment in the process,” the paper said. “And by doing so it will release £6.5 billion of planned expenditure, which we can instead invest into the projects that people and communities really need around the country, ensuring all corners of the country benefit from this unprecedented investment in transport.”

The most recent cost estimate of bringing HS2 to Euston was around £4.5billion. The paper was suddenly available even though Mr Sunak and his colleagues had spent much of their party conference in Manchester circumventing questions on the future of HS2. In the end, the PM said the high-speed track would link Euston and Birmingham but journeys further north would continue on the normal rails. Mr Sunak said the rail network investment could not simply be seen as a north-south issue and routes from east to west needed work too.

Robert Latham, who sits on HS2’s Euston Community Representative Group, said: “I find it absolutely mind-boggling what they are saying about Euston. The idea that they can make £6.5billion from Euston is cloud cuckoo land – it’s away with the fairies.” Mr Sunak – who served as the chancellor for many years of the ongoing shambolic HS2 management – said in his speech that a new authority would be set up to oversee the management of HS2 works in Euston because “there has to be accountability for mistakes made”.

The Euston works have already been significantly delayed and people in Camden should not expect work to be finished before 2040. Camden Council was left furious in March when HS2 works in Euston were frozen for two years due to mounting costs, leading to ongoing speculation as to whether it would ever get to central London.

Town Hall leader Councillor Georgia Gould said: “We have avoided the worst-case scenario of Euston being left abandoned in its current state. However, we now must ensure that Camden, our partners and the local community shape its future. “Our residents and businesses have endured years of disruption and blight – homes have been knocked down, businesses lost and open space destroyed. The prime minister’s proposal to take £6.5billion from Euston must not lead to the promises made to our community on affordable housing, jobs and investment locally being broken.”

HS2 – originally the brainchild of the unelected Labour peer Lord Andrew Adonis – had at one stage been mapped out to create a link to the HS1 route to Europe via the bridges in Camden Town.

This was abandoned on the grounds of cost and disruption, but it was the first sign that the infrastructure project would never come to fruition as first thought.

PM Rishi Sunak on the conference hall stage yesterday (Wednesday)

Camden is the worst affected area in the country with businesses seized and demolished, and residents turfed out of their homes for HS2. Thousands of graves were exhumed from a burial ground, while ancient trees were felled.

People living next to the site endured unbearable construction noise and were told to keep their windows closed due to dust clouds from the site.

Even last week, residents near the route learned their properties are likely to experience some damage caused by five more years of tunneling work.

The last day of the Bree Louise – the pub seized by the government under a compulsory purchase order and then demolished

All this happened before work suddenly stopped earlier this year and surviving businesses had to try and carry on next to a ghost construction site. An unknown number of workers were laid off due to the pause.

Cllr Gould said: “Camden Council is ready to lead a development in Euston that delivers for our community and the country. This means the council, our key partners in London and our local community in Euston, having not just seats at the table but the power to lead and make our vision for Euston – and the life-changing opportunities that it will provide – a reality.”

She urged Mr Sunak to reconsider his decision to axe the Manchester section of the route.