Britain’s biggest construction companies have warned Boris Johnson that scrapping HS2 would cause “irreparable damage” to the sector and would jeopardise an “industrial renaissance” in the Midlands and northern England. The chief executives of Balfour Beatty (BBY), Skanska, Morgan Sindall Group (MGNS), Costain Group (COST), Mace and Sir Robert McAlpine are among signatories of a letter to the prime minister seen by The Times urging him to approve construction of the full high-speed rail project. The business leaders argue that no alternative “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects exist that can sustain the tens of thousands of skilled workers needed to maintain Britain’s engineering and construction capability. HS2 also represents a crucial opportunity to train the workforce in modern methods of construction, such as offsite manufacturing, that could strengthen the sector and make British engineering “even more exportable”, they said.
New evidence that the housing market has been boosted by Boris Johnson’s emphatic election victory has emerged in a survey that suggests property prices have started to increase at a record rate. House prices have risen by 2.3% since the general election on December 12, adding £6,785 to the value of the average home, according to Rightmove, the property search website, which reckons that the average asking price now stands at £306,810. It is the largest monthly price rise for this time of year that Rightmove has recorded since it began its surveys in 2002. The findings chime with those of other recent indicators. This month Halifax said that house prices had risen by 1.7% in December. Nationwide recorded a 0.1% growth in prices over the same month.
