Government forced to issue correction note over compulsory purchases and demolitions.
A comparison of housing demolition figures used to help justify changing the HS2 route through South Yorkshire was wrong by at least 40 per cent, the Government has admitted.
A correction note published by the Department for Transport said that a previous claim that altering the route away from a now-scrapped station at Meadowhall to a route close to the M18 motorway through
Rotherham and Doncaster would result in a 81 per cent reduction in the number of properties eligible for compensation was incorrect and had been published due to a “drafting error”.
The note said the real number is a 41 per cent reduction but added the updated figure does not take account of HS2’s Need to Sell scheme, which allows people with a “compelling reason” to sell their house to the Government and is judged on a case-by-case basis.
It said the incorrect 81 per cent figure relating to homes and businesses eligible for statutory compensation and non-statutory property schemes had been “calculated from a previous version of HS2 Ltd’s advice”.
But officials insisted despite the change, the route alteration will still result in 90 fewer demolitions than what was originally planned.
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