HS2 fails to rent out mansions it forced owners to leave

HS2 fails to rent out mansions it forced owners to leave – costing taxpayers millions



Posted by theipaper

5 comments

  1. HS2 has been accused of an “appalling” waste of taxpayer money after a £7.5m mansion bought as a result of the [high-speed rail project](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/hs2-state-of-the-art-worst-all-worlds-3260639?srsltid=AfmBOoq_QsmElaB8em7rPxrNbGzN1sNcyZ0ICyQDpfOJ8soaX_TA5ODc&ico=in-line_link) sat empty for years before going on the rental market for £12,500 a month.

    The Grade-II listed Nash townhouse near Regent’s Park, believed to be one of the most expensive homes bought as part of [HS2,](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/hs2-waste-new-birmingham-station-unused-3184804?srsltid=AfmBOoqe87pX7ES568_qcEwt5YxmXpLmNUfaP6Xg1z6ka2rbhjX-xR4V&ico=in-line_link) was purchased by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2019.

    Local residents say the five-bedroom home in the Prime Minister’s north London constituency has remained unoccupied ever since.

    But the elegant four-storey home was only recently put up for rent for what would be a £150,000 annual income.

    Another Grade-II listed detached house on an adjacent road was bought by the Government for £4.7m in 2017, Land Registry documents show, but has only been rented out for three years, bringing in just over £300,000 for the public purse.

    HS2 points to the cost and complexity of refurbishing the Grade II-listed properties on Crown Estate land and bringing them up to a lettable standard.

    But critics say the taxpayer has lost out again over the HS2 development, which Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander last month branded “an appalling mess”.

    The Taxpayers’ Alliance estimates the combined additional rental value of both homes that could have been recouped since they were bought is £1.25m – just under £800,000 for 4 Park Village East, and an extra £450,000 for 17 Park Village West.

    William Yarwood, media campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told *The i Paper: “*HS2’s astonishing arrogance with taxpayers money is appalling, and is indicative of a toxic culture within the failing quango.

  2. Honestly the whole thing stinks of the old American railroad baron land speculation frauds.

    Rich, well connected person wants to sell their property at way above its asking price, can’t fund any buyers, notices it’s within the same hemisphere as HS2 construction, and gives a friendly nod to their senior civil servant old school chum at the Department of Transport.

  3. Yet the majority of properties purchased under compulsory purchase were offered below market value.
    The whole HS2 gravy train needs investigating.
    The £37bn leg to Birmingham is set to reach more than £100bn.

  4. National Trust will be getting a few more locations added over the next decade then.

  5. Having worked within the railway on a route that owned several properties (nothing like what HS2 now own), the reason things weren’t rented out wasn’t due to nefariousness, just common-or-garden incompetence and lack of staff to administer the rentals.

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