To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of jobs that will be created in (a) Cheshire and (b) the North West as a result of High Speed 2.
Answered on
24 November 2016
High Speed 2 Limited estimate that HS2 will support up to 100,000 jobs around HS2 stations. The western leg of Phase 2b is estimated to support 30,000 to 43,600 of these jobs. The government has not made an estimate of jobs created in Cheshire. Other organisations have produced their own estimates and ambitions for jobs supported by HS2. For example, the Northern Gateway Development Zone in Cheshire and Staffordshire have plans to help create 120,000 new jobs by 2040. They are currently preparing an HS2 Growth Strategy on how HS2 will contribute to supporting this number of new jobs in the area.
High Speed 2 Limited also estimate that around 25,000 private sector employment opportunities are expected to be generated in the process of building the HS2 railway, with a further 3,000 jobs to operate it once finished.