Recommendation 40

However, the Department told us that overall decisions need to be made on future rail investment first. It explained that the government’s long– term strategy being developed for strategic rail investment, including on improvements to rail connectivity in the north of England, may affect what land is bought or sold or safeguarded. It expects the timetable for decisions to be made on the strategy “as a matter of months, not a matter of years”. There was some land that it was very confident would not be required under any plausible scheme, and so it would look to release those in a “sensible and sensitive way, so that communities don’t suffer that 66 C&AG’s Report, para 2.12 and Fig 4 67 Committee of Public Accounts, HS2 and Euston, Tenth Report of Session 2023–24, HC 67, 7 February 2024 68 Department for Transport, HS2 6-monthly report to Parliament: December 2024, 17 December 2024 22 detriment, and so the Exchequer gets the revenue back” 69 The Department expects that fully disposing of land and property no longer needed will take several years to complete.70