Antoinette Sandbach – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Antoinette Sandbach on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of agricultural land lost to UK farm production as a result of the construction of High Speed 2.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Approximately 2,750 hectares of agricultural land is permanently required for Phase One of HS2. 4,800 hectares will be taken during the construction period, but much of this will be returned to the existing agricultural condition following construction.

A detailed assessment of the amount of agricultural land required for future Phases of HS2 will be undertaken alongside the deposit of the relevant hybrid Bills for these phases.