The Government needs to find the courage to scrap HS2 altogether

SIR – You report (September 15) that the northern leg of HS2 “may be axed to save £35 billion”.

It is time our politicians woke up and cancelled the whole sorry enterprise. Vast amounts of money have been spent, without any accountability – and for what?

Charles Penfold
Ulverston, Cumbria 

SIR – The exorbitantly overpriced HS2 project should never have been approved in the first place, but it needs to be stopped now.

It is years late and way beyond budget. Few people will use even the Birmingham-to-London section. And that’s without taking into account the disruption to towns, villages and the countryside.

Alastair Clarke
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

SIR – I was never convinced by the justification for HS2, but once you have embarked on these major projects, you have to see them through. The late Berkshire county council built a new headquarters at Shinfield Park. It got the land cheap and the building was costed at £8 million. But when inflation came, it began to lose heart.

However, there was a rallying cry from the chair of finance, who asked: do you want to go down as the council that dug the most expensive hole in history?

The same applies to Rishi Sunak. Does he want to go down as the Prime Minister who built the most expensive railway to nowhere? 

Clive Williams 
Upper Basildon, Berkshire

SIR – If only the billions allocated to HS2 could instead be spent on nuclear power stations and small modular reactors.
Alan Sabatini
Bournemouth, Dorset

SIR – Your Leading Article (“Labour can be beaten”, September 16) is encouraging. However, we need the realistic promise of a better life if we are to re-elect the Conservatives. I believe that as few as two pledges would suffice.

These would be to abolish inheritance tax and abandon HS2. The Liberal Democrat and Labour vote would crumble in the face of such pragmatic steps.

Jo Murray
Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire

SIR – I was interested to see your report (September 13) that Jeremy Hunt has said tax cuts aren’t coming, on the grounds that they would make things worse.

The Chancellor’s reasoning appears to be that allowing us to keep more of our own money to spend as we wish will cause inflation to rise. But will the Government spending our money instead have a different effect? I struggle to see the logic.

Sandra Lewin
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire