The Government decision to press ahead with a fire sale would also lock in the north south gap for generations, permanently ruling out a new Birmingham-Manchester railway.

Analysis by the industry’s High Speed Rail Group published today warns the Government plan to sell ‘within weeks’ 2,900 acres of land between Birmingham and Crewe would be a costly mistake for the country.

Evaluations based on current agricultural and urban land values suggest the Government would be lucky to raise £100m from the sale of phase 2a land, compared with the £200m paid out by the taxpayer.

Given the risk of loss to the taxpayer, the industry group is calling for land sales to only proceed after a full consultation with local authorities, business and rail stakeholders in order to avoid unintended consequences.

Analysis of the consequences of removing Phase 2a reveals it is the most important section of the whole route.

Without it, a permanent and irrevocable bottleneck is created at Colwich Junction in Staffordshire, which will forever restrict the flow of rail services over the West Coast Main Line.

A HSRG spokesperson warned that the current proposal could be likened to a plan to funnel the M40 from London to Birmingham into an already overcrowded A-road, and thereafter onto a country lane.

“It is a recipe to lock-in insufficient services and delayed trains for decades to come.”
He added: “At a time of extremely difficult public finances, the country surely cannot contemplate accepting a £100m loss of taxpayers money like this.

“Land sales simply should not proceed until there has been a full analysis and a full consultation with stakeholders.

“Smart countries keep their options open for the future. Whilst the Government say they cannot fund HS2 north of Birmingham today, we need to protect the option to build it in future when public finances allow.

“A premature and hasty sale of public land would not only cost huge amounts of money, but lock-in the north-south gap for generations to come. The Government needs to think again.”