Make the Right Decision for City Region and Quickly, HS2 Summit Told

19th February 2016

The city business region must agree as a collective on the location for the Sheffield HS2 station and quickly, according to speakers at a major summit.

Organised by Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, 'Getting the right location for the Sheffield City Region HS2 station: the role of business' heard from key speakers including Henk Bouwman, currently working with the Independent Transport Commission (ITC), Gerald Jennings, President of Leeds Chamber of Commerce, and Justin Urquhart Stewart, one of the UK's best-known names in investment management. Introducing the event held to debate whether the HS2 station should be in the city centre at Victoria or at Meadowhall - Sheffield Chamber Executive Director Richard Wright, told the audience of more than 200 guests at Sheffield City Hall: -HS2 will, without doubt, have enormous implications for the future economy of the region. We've got to get behind the right decision, because, while we're bickering, the final decision will be made later this year. We can't afford to end up with the wrong location. -We know there are sensitivities and differing views around the region but must not lose sight of our ambition to be a significant contributor to the Northern Powerhouse and the need to attract inward investment and the station location will affect that. Creative Sheffield Director Edward Highfield told the summit, sponsored by Grant Thornton, HS2 was a 'once in a generation investment'. -It's not a silver bullet or a magic pill, he said, -but it is a catalyst, adding that it was -utterly inconceivable that Leeds or Manchester would accept the reduced impact of a Parkway station.  -Getting Sheffield punching its weight will bring more benefit to the whole city region, he said. Henk Bouwman gave a European perspective sharing experiences of high speed rail stations and infrastructure projects in Lille, Bordeaux and Rotterdam and stressed the location needed to be considered on its future, saying: -In real terms 2065 is tomorrow. Emphasising that the location had to be a 'point of arrival' not just departure, he said: -The high speed station is your address on a national and European level and it should represent a Metropolitan region. Gerald Jennings, President of Leeds Chamber of Commerce, talked the audience through his city's experience of choosing an HS2 station from three locations. -You have a voice, sometimes we don't think we do but we found ours and used it in a positive way. -Initially people thought it was all about speed but, for us, it's all about capacity. Consensus was key to Leeds' HS2 decision, he explained, with the LEP, local authorities and the chamber all agreeing on the location. -Collectively everyone signed up to those principles and that was hugely important and persuasive. You have got to act together, adding: -It was really important that we nailed down where the station was going to be as it was clear the clock was ticking. Justin Urquhart Stewart told the summit people outside the city and in the south 'couldn't really see the difference' between Victoria and Meadowhall. -It is a rather parochial attitude and the longer you take to decide what's going on the more it erodes confidence. Keep up the momentum, use your history and make a decision in a timely and effective manner. Urging the city region to be more imaginative and ambitious, he finished saying: -Make a decision, get on with it and make it happen. Paul Houghton, senior partner at Grant Thornton in Sheffield, said: "Grant Thornton is passionate about shaping vibrant growth for the economic benefit of the Sheffield City Region. "On the basis of the evidence currently available, a Sheffield city centre station appears to be the option which would drive a significantly better economic outcome for the region as a whole.  A growing weight of the city region's business community is keen to press Government to review the options and back the solution which will deliver the best regeneration potential and transport connectivity for the region. -The next four to five months will be crucial in creating a broad consensus across the entire city region and Grant Thornton is committed to working with all relevant stakeholders in this regard. The event also featured a question and answer panel made up of the speakers as well as Sheffield Chamber President Jillian Thomas, Alexis Krachai of Counter Context, and Paul Houghton of Grant Thornton. Concluding the summit, Richard Wright said Chamber President Jillian Thomas would be writing to Chancellor George Osborne and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to call for an independent economic review into the decision on station location. He told attendees: -This shouldn't be about one set of stakeholders arguing with others - business has got to rise above that. -I encourage you to add your business names to the appendix of our letter. -As a Chamber we believe in the maximum economic return. Let's put the confusion behind us and agree we will get behind the findings of that review.