Recommendation 22

The Department and HS2 Ltd asserted that many of the jobs from the programme will go to those who live locally to construction sites. However, the West Midlands Combined Authority told us that of a high number of the jobs promised to be created from work at Delta Junction, just outside Birmingham, only 35 went to local people. HS2 Ltd told us that these 35 jobs related to a specific job advert issued by one of its contractors.52 We are also mindful of the experience of the London Olympics where the number of real, sustainable jobs for local residents was somewhat overstated by people claiming a local postcode when they were, in practice, moving in and out of the site areas on a weekly 49 Qq 5, 63; Committee of Public Accounts, Progress with preparations for High Speed 2, Fourteenth Report of Session 2016–17, HC 486, 14 September 2016, conclusion 5; Committee of Public Accounts, High Speed 2: a review of early programme preparation, Twenty-second Report of Session 2013–14, HC 478, 9 September 2013, para 4, Q187 50 Qq 5, 63–64; Oral evidence: HS2 recall – pre panel, HC 178, Qq 2–4, 6 51 Qq 63–65 52 Qq 64, 69–71; Oral evidence: HS2 recall – pre panel, HC 178, Qq 53–54 HS2 Summer 2021 17 basis. We asked what lessons the Department and HS 2 Ltd had taken from this and how it would ensure that communities benefit from the programme. HS2 Ltd told us that it was doing some work on postcode tracking and had asked suppliers to evidence how they were assuring themselves that local opportunities were truly local.53