High-speed rail tunnel ‘will destroy value of our homes’

Houses in one of London's wealthiest neighbourhoods could become unsellable because of plans to build a high-speed rail tunnel under homes in the area, estate agents warned today.

Knight Frank said the value of properties in Primrose Hill had already fallen "significantly" since the area was earmarked by transport chiefs as the favoured route for the High Speed Two rail link from London to Birmingham and Scotland.

Residents say they fear losing their homes because the clay they are built on is not strong enough to withstand tunnelling.

One of the worst affected areas is set to be Chalcot Square — near the home of Labour leadership candidate David Miliband.

Sales director for estate agent Douglas and Gordon in Chelsea, Edward Mead, said HS2 could mirror the impact of a proposed Jubilee line extension on prices in Chelsea in the early Nineties, even though it did not go ahead.

Mr Mead said that if the Primrose Hill route was approved it could push prices down by five to 10 per cent.

"In a bad market it could even make the houses unsaleable," he added. "Clay is a terrible thing to build on anyway, the way it expands and contracts."

Under the plans, the line, to be built from 2017, will begin at Euston station, which will be expanded. Three hundred council flats on the Regent's Park Estate would be demolished.

Primrose Hill residents today criticised the plans and the lack of consultation.

Company chairman John Stopford, 70, said: "The Government thinks it can build a tunnel less than 20 metres under Chalcot Square, which has no foundations. The trains will be accelerating at 186mph at the end of the curve, it's bananas.

"These houses move with the seasons and have cracks because they're 150 years old and they are built on clay."

Lewis Alexander, 29, managing director of a fashion executive search firm, branded the proposed rail tunnel "absolutely insane" and admitted he was scared of losing his home.

Vintage interior boutique owner Gillian Anderson Price said: "You have to apply for planning permission to sneeze in this village and we haven't been told anything about HS2 at all."

A Department for Transport spokesman said that no final decision had been taken.