A new evidence report published today (Wed 8 February) commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts, reveals fundamental flaws in the way HS2 Ltd has assessed the value of nature along the construction path of HS2. The report HS2 double jeopardy: how the UK’s largest infrastructure project undervalued nature and overvalued its compensation measures finds that HS2 Ltd has hugely undervalued natural habitats and the wildlife that is being destroyed by the construction along the route – while simultaneously overvaluing the impact of its nature compensation measures.
WTBCN Conservation Director Matt Jackson says: "The HS2 route comes into Northamptonshire though a wildlife-rich wet grassland, and leaves it through an ancient woodland, cutting an enormous swathe through the countryside in between. It was approved by Parliament on the basis that it would compensate properly for its impacts on wildlife. A review by Natural England in 2016 urged that a sensitivity analysis of the project’s biodiversity assessments should be carried out, but seven years later it has fallen to the Wildlife Trusts to show that, based on the Government’s own approach to biodiversity impacts, HS2 falls far short of the promises made."
The report finds that watercourses, ponds and trees which have been missed out of the data, and problems with the way nature is being valued. For example, many tree-lined, well established and species-rich hedgerows, which provide berries, shelter and nesting places for wildlife, have been given a lower nature value than the new hedgerows that HS2 Ltd is going to plant. The report:
- highlights major errors and concerns with the methodology and calculations HS2 Ltd has used to determine the scheme’s design, the environmental impact calculations and their proposed habitat mitigation
- sets out the changes we advise the UK Government to sanction, so the truth about the impacts on nature can be confirmed
- makes the case for an immediate pause on Phase 1 construction and on the current Phase 2 legislative process whilst the issues above are rectified.
Dr Rachel Giles, evidence and planning manager at Cheshire Wildlife Trust and author of the report, says: “We’ve been shocked by the errors and discrepancies that our audit revealed. HS2 Ltd must stop using a deeply flawed method to calculate the value of nature affected by the construction of the route. It is astonishing that a flagship infrastructure project is able to use a metric which is untested and not fit for purpose.
“HS2 Ltd should urgently recalculate the total loss to nature, by re-evaluating existing biodiversity along the entire route whilst there is still time to change the scheme’s design and delivery.”
