The National Trust is neither for nor against HS2 in principle but our view is that if it is to go ahead, then it should be built to the highest design and environmental standards. The current plans for HS2 set out with the Hybrid Bill do not meet the standards we believe are needed. We have concerns both about the overall protections for the environment and also specific site concerns in line with our statutory responsibility to protect the land which we hold on behalf of the nation for ever and for everyone.
The National Trust welcomed the recent Environmental Audit Committee report into HS2 and the environment. We support the Environmental Audit Committee amendment to the Instructions to be given to the select committee examining HS2 petitions to require it to explicitly consider the environmental impacts of HS2.
In terms of the EAC report, we welcomed its recommendations that:

The Government should aim higher than the objective of no net biodiversity loss and that
HS2 Ltd must carry out environmental surveys of the 40% of the route yet to be examined

The biodiversity offsetting approach (to offset damage to the environment in one location by enhancing the environment elsewhere) be improved with a better metric for assessing environmental worth, stronger compensation where ancient woodland is affected and a review of the requirement for offsetting to be provided directly alongside the HS2 route to take advantage of opportunities for better offsetting measures further afield

A separate ring-fenced budget be set up for environmental safeguards and compensation to ensure HS2 doesn’t cut corners at the expense of the environment if other costs grow
In our evidence to the EAC inquiry, we also called for

Independent review of overlapping assessments of impact that can report on matters of cumulative and in-combination impacts (for example, forestry, ecology, cultural heritage)

A technical dispute resolution method to allow clarification of areas of dispute prior to the
Environmental Statement going before decision makers (in this case Parliament)
This is a major Infrastructure project affecting communities and landscape. The current proposals concentrate only on delivering a railway line and are not, at this stage, considering landscape context or co-ordination between independently designed elements, for example, the relationship between 'track bed' and 'hydrology'
There is an opportunity to identify strategies, ways of working together and landscape policies that could deliver benefits beyond, just, a railway line and may achieve cost benefits. For example, the current plans for disposal of excess spoil lack line-wide thinking about how that material might be used elsewhere to create screening or new landscape associated with the necessary new infrastructure.

HS2 will place severe demands on County Archaeologist teams dealing with related planning issues.
During HS1 some local authorities were supported financially to employ short-term staff to cover the additional workload. Local authorities now have fewer resources so to avoid delays in the process it is worth considering financial support to cover temporary HS2 related work.
HS1 had a ‘Rail Link Countryside Initiative’. This received initial funding of £2m from Channel Tunnel
Rail Link (CTRL) and was run as an independent charity to promote, support, co-ordinate and encourage projects that enhance and where appropriate improve access to, the landscape, ecology and heritage of the area affected by the development or operation of HS1. The legacy fund was for projects within the wider rail link corridor – some 2km wide in addition to mitigation works and was a form of local ‘compensation’ for hosting the railway. Projects funded included the conservation of
Darnley mausoleum near Gravesend. The inclusion of such a Countryside Initiative on HS2 to support wider, off-line, benefits to heritage and the environment would be welcomed by communities and environmental groups alike.
Hartwell House , near Aylesbury , a Grade I building currently operating as a hotel, which sits within a Grade II* historic landscape often viewed as one of the finest landscapes in Buckinghamshire We have promoted our land bridge proposal ( see details here ) which has been rejected by HS2 Ltd despite recognition it is the best environmental option. Our ‘landscape-led’ proposals would offset significant harm produced by noise and visual impact, protect residential amenity, enhance biodiversity connections and significantly reduce the amount of parkland walling to be demolished and remove the need for an intrusive foot overbridge.
The Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty / Coombe Hill: Placing the line and associated structures above ground within the AONB would have significant adverse impacts and this justifies an extended bored tunnel for the Chilterns AONB which we support.
Claydon House in Buckinghamshire , a Grade I House within a Grade II historic landscape: There appears to be an absence of interaction with other, non-HS2 projects, currently in development by other parties that will interact with HS2 and the Infrastructure maintenance Depot, the East West Rail
Link, and the Energy from Waste plant near Claydon House in Buckinghamshire.
Waddesdon Estate, near Aylesbury , containing the Grade I-listed Manor within a Grade I historic landscape: Appropriate treatment of the A41 is crucial to the setting of Waddesdon Manor and
Waddesdon village.
The National Trust is Europe’s largest conservation charity, with four million members and an annual turnover of more than £430 million. We manage more than 250,000 hectares of countryside, several hundred historic houses, gardens and parks and more than 700 miles of coastline across England,
Wales and Northern Ireland.
Stephen Field, HS2 Project Officer: stephen.field@nationaltrust.org.uk
/ 07824 544201
Richard Hebditch, Assistant Director for External Affairs: richard.hebditch@nationaltrust.org.uk
/
07775 011501