Hundreds of new jobs have been announced today (June 30) at HS2 Ltd, across a broad range of disciplines, from engineering and project management to land and property, procurement and commercial.

These are just a few amongst those to be advertised from today as part of a three-month direct recruitment drive.

Over 300 roles will be based in Birmingham, West Midlands, and the new roles announced today will push the total number of jobs the project has supported to over 10,000 once recruited.

The jobs boost originates from the Government’s backing of the project earlier this year and its placing HS2 as integral to the their ‘levelling up’ agenda, which will heighten regional economies outside of London, improve Britain’s railways and deliver a cleaner, greener, transport solution.

HS2 Minister, Andrew Stephenson, said: “These jobs are a welcome boost for workers across the country at this challenging time, providing the opportunity to play a crucial part in delivering HS2, an integral part of improving connectivity and levelling up our country.

“We continue to work with the transport and construction industry to accelerate projects, where safely possible, to kickstart our economy, provide more employment opportunities and drive our recovery as we build out of Covid-19.”

CEO of HS2 Ltd, Mark Thurston, said: “With many people facing uncertain job security and worried about future prospects in the current crisis, I hope this will be welcome news for anyone seeking a long-term and rewarding career with a company that places health, safety, equality and diversity at the very top of its priority list.

“As part of the HS2 team you’ll be shaping British history; transforming our Victorian railways and supporting the regeneration and economic prosperity of towns and cities right along the route.”

Leaders in the North and the Midlands are calling for HS2 work to be brought forward as new research shows the eastern leg of the line could create up to 150,000 jobs.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is being pushed to back his promise to ‘build better, faster, greener’ by clearing the way for Phase 2b east of the high-speed network to commence ahead of schedule as they look to support recovery from the Covid-19 outbreak.

New figures show that the area linking Leeds and the East Midlands has seen a £58bn loss in infrastructure funding over the past decade when compared to Greater London.

Leaders in Leeds and Nottinghamshire have also said their economies are missing out on billions in potential every year because they have to suffer from unreliable and overcrowded trains alongside communities cut off from good transport links.

Leeds City Council leader Councillor Judith Blake, and Nottinghamshire County Council leader, Kay Cutts MBE, have joined together to demand that government allows work to start early on Phase2b of the high-speed line.

In a letter to 10 Downing Street, both leaders have said early investment in new infrastructure is critical to government achieving the goals implied by its levelling up agenda.

The research commissioned by the councils formulates part of their submission to the National Infrastructure Commission’s Rail Needs Assessment for the Midlands and the North. Some of its findings include:

• The Eastern Leg is home to 13 million people and around 6m jobs, equating to 20% of the UK – bigger than the combined size of the West Midlands and North West, and larger than the economy of Denmark.
• Though the area covered by HS2 Phase 2b East is bigger than Greater London, it has received £58bn less transport investment over the past 10 years – enough to have built the Eastern Leg and other vital rail projects.
• With HS2, the Eastern Leg area will deliver an additional 150,000 jobs and billions more in productivity.

Councillor Judith Blake said: “Making more of the economic potential of the UK’s regions is going to be critical to the nation’s future growth as we seek to both recover from the impact of COVID-19 and confront the challenges of the future.

“But it will not be possible if we continue to rely on failing rail infrastructure which was built more than a century ago. We now need government to reverse historic under-spending and unleash the economic capacity of city regions like Leeds and counties like Nottinghamshire.”

Councillor Kay Cutts said: “The Prime Minister has quite rightly identified infrastructure as a key mechanism for levelling up the country.

“Our strategy goes further than high-speed trains. We have developed detailed plans to make sure the benefits of HS2 extend to people at community level. So, this is our route to future prosperity for everyone and the sooner we start building the better.”

The new Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI), titled the West Midlands Interchange (WMI), located in South Staffordshire, is set to become a reality with the promoter Four Ashes Limited (FAL) planning the successive stage in its development after it was granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) by Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary, back in May. The DCO decision is now clear of the judicial review period.

The site will boost economic development through its location in the M54 Wolverhampton, Staffordshire High Growth Zone.

It is also hoped it will support both the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy and the drives of the Midlands Engine, which together aim to help deliver a high-skilled, competitive economy that benefits people in the West Midlands and throughout the UK.

More global business and investment is hoped to be attracted, the scheme will create 8,550 direct jobs. It is also expected to generate £427m of local economic activity each year and, through the supply chain, create £912m per annum of economic activity nationally.

The West Midlands’ strong manufacturing and logistics industrial base is rising and the WMI will deliver fast, reliable transport links to help the region’s businesses compete in national and international markets.

The proposed scheme has been designed to increase the efficiency of freight distribution, taking freight traffic off motorways and trunk roads and onto the rail network.

This will also reduce CO2 emissions produced by freight transport; rail freight produces up to 70% less CO2 and up to 15 times lower noxious emissions than road freight tonne for tonne.

The site will have direct connections to the West Coast Mainline, one of the strategic rail freight routes in the UK that can accommodate the transfer of larger 9’6” freight containers between road and rail.

Images: Four Ashes Limited