A council has warned it may very well be pressured to declare chapter after the federal government’s “devastating” resolution to cancel the northern leg of HS2.
Cheshire East Council mentioned it had spent £11m getting ready for the high-speed line, together with £8.6m that had been funded by borrowing.
In a report from the total council on 13 December, the native authority – which is beneath no total management – mentioned it could be required to write down off the expenditure, together with by expensing the £8.6m by its personal income account.
The council mentioned it may very well be pressured to “trigger a [section] 114 notice” due to “insufficient funds, and inadequate reserves, to manage in-year expenditure”.
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The warning comes simply weeks after Nottingham Council declared itself successfully bankrupt after issuing a piece 114 discover, which implies that all new spending – apart from defending weak individuals and statutory companies – should cease instantly.
Birmingham City Council additionally issued its personal 114 discover in September after being hit with a £760m invoice to settle equal pay claims.
This 12 months’s Conservative Party convention was dominated by the announcement that the northern leg of HS2 past Birmingham could be scrapped – prompting accusations of a betrayal of northern voters.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak defended his resolution by promising to spend the billions of money financial savings on lots of of different transport schemes throughout the nation as an alternative, together with a brand new “Network North” venture to hitch up northern cities by rail.
But Cheshire East Council mentioned it “does not believe that government’s alternative proposals for transport investment, Network North, are adequate to mitigate and manage the devastating impacts the cancellation of HS2 will have on the north, particularly for Cheshire East”.
The council, within the North West of England, mentioned it was searching for to barter with the federal government to safe “an appropriate financial package to compensate for the council’s losses and recover the growth and levelling up benefits that HS2 phases 2a and 2b would have unlocked for the borough” – together with almost 4,500 properties, 5,000 new jobs and a £750m enhance to the native economic system.
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A Department for Transport spokesperson mentioned: “Cheshire East is set to receive significant additional support from a new £4.7bn fund to transform local transport across the north and Midlands, as well as a £110m uplift of over 11 years for local road maintenance.
“This is on prime of a funding enhance of greater than £2.2 million for bus companies within the space in addition to the extension of the £2 bus fare cap to the tip of 2024 – all a part of our Network North plans utilizing redirected HS2 funding to profit extra individuals in additional locations, extra rapidly.”
Delivery of HS2 – which was meant to hyperlink London to Birmingham after which on to Manchester and Leeds – has been a core pledge of the Conservative authorities, but it surely has been tormented by delays and ever-increasing prices.
The preliminary opening date of 2026 has fallen again to 2033, whereas value estimates have spiralled from about £33bn in 2010 to an estimated £180bn.
Source: information.sky.com”