One of the many communities affected by HS2 are the people who live in the Regents Park Estate in London, which would have to be knocked down to build HS2. This is social housing, and many of the people have lived here for decades.
(To see some of their stories, please watch the film by Jane Gull – Our Street, a film by Jane Gull.)
In April, then Transport Secretary Justine Greening told Camden officials that the Government were buying the National Temperance Hospital and gave them the clear impression that this was to rehouse some of the displaced residents.
However, at a meeting last week, HS2 reneged on this.
According to the Camden New Journal:
At a meeting in Maria Fidelis School, Euston, a HS2 official said: “We have never been given a commitment from the Secretary of State that that site will be used for social housing.”
She added that HS2 chief executive Alison Munro had received a letter to that effect from the current Secretary of State. The meeting heard from railway architects that the hospital, in Hampstead Road, is instead being earmarked for a building site for HS2 works.
The Camden Council website says
“This is an extremely disappointing development: Camden officials were told in April this year, via a meeting with the then Secretary of State for Transport, Justine Greening, and HS2 Ltd, that this site would be purchased by the Government and would mean residents could be rehomed in the same area. The Department for Transport confirmed this commitment publicly on a number of occasions, and at the same time we wrote to HS2 Ltd to confirm that they understood and were aware of the arrangement. “
The latest HS2 Ltd statement on the matter is here.