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This report summarises the interim decisions and observations of the Select Committee on the High Speed 2 Phase One hybrid bill, prior to the general election of May 2015 and some 10 months after our work began. We hope that it will be read by those involved in the hybrid bill process. We trust that our suggestions on how to present petitions effectively and efficiently will be taken on board. Those to whom our other recommendations are directed should take them as far forward as possible in the period before our successor committee continues our duties.
We thank all who have participated in the select committee process. In particular, we thank the petitioners themselves and those who are advising and supporting them through an arduous procedure, those who have helped to organise and who have participated in our enormously helpful programme of visits along the proposed Phase One route, the staff of the HS2 project who have so ably administered many of our facilities in Committee Room 5, Mr David Walker of Winckworth Sherwood who has programmed petitions hearings so efficiently, and the Committee staff who unusually have had to advise not only the Committee over an extended period but petitioners as well. We also thank fellow Members of Parliament for their time and diligence in many areas, including in helping petitioners deposit documents, in suggesting visit itineraries, in helping their constituents make the most of our visits, and in appearances before us to summarise areas of local concern. Engagement between petitioners and their Members has clearly brought about several areas of improvement to the proposed project.
We have made a number of suggestions for changes to the proposed scheme. Our successor committee will wish to review progress with these. Our priority is on home purchase; in particular, the urgent necessity for the Need to Sell scheme to function properly, and efficiently. We want evidence that this is happening substantially before the end of the select committee process.
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