Weird how we are costing the uk so much and yet contributing so much too…its like we are Schrödinger's taxpayer.

by Safe-Hair-7688

8 comments

  1. Scotland doesn’t pay anything for HS2. Any UK spend on HS2 that Scotland indirectly contributed to is returned in full via budget increases/Barnett consequentials. If the SNP want HS2 built towards England in parallel from Glasgow/Edinburgh (great idea) they could offer to contribute to the cost.

  2. makes sense this is a national article. telling the nationalists what they want to hear since 2014

  3. Based on the UK Government’s own figures, £22.6 billion was allocated to HS2 between 2021 and 2025. If Scotland had received a fair share of that money based on its population (which is around 8.2% of the UK total), it should have been given approximately £1.85 billion. However, according to a Freedom of Information response from HM Treasury, Scotland only received £276 million through the Barnett Formula during this period, and that was from a general increase in the UK Department for Transport’s budget – not directly because of HS2. This means Scottish taxpayers helped fund HS2 but got back just a fraction of what they should have. The shortfall is over £1.5 billion, despite HS2 offering little or no benefit to Scotland.

  4. We know. HS2 is funded by general taxation which all devolved nations pay into. We also know that the first iteration of HS2 promised a high speed connection between Scotland and London. Scotland was left without this, and then HS2 has been watered down from the northern cities ever since.

  5. Critical to point out that it’s not England that subsidises Scotland but London and the south east that subsidises everyone. If HS2 suceeds in its goal, regardless of whether it extends far north or not, then Birmingham would have increased productivity which means more tax and benefit for the rest of England and Scotland. So it does kind of work out in the end so long as HS2 actually does it’s job. It’s also infrustructure that would last a very long time.

  6. Pot, meet kettle

    Edit: Downvoted for pointing out the hypocrisy of the SNP “not wanting to be an afterthought”. shock. fucking. horror.

  7. yeah imagine a government mismanaging an infrastructure project making it both massively delayed and over budget! who would do that…

  8. Remember Better Together made a big deal of how Scotland would miss out on HS2 if we voted Indy? lol

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