When HS2 construction began around Euston station in 2017, residents were promised that every square metre of lost green space and playgrounds would be restored. Eight years later, 14,404 sq metres of green space is being permanently swallowed, the replacement park that was supposed to sit on a concrete deck above the tracks has been scrapped entirely, and the constituency's biggest green asset — St James's Gardens, an 18th-century burial ground designated as a site of importance for nature conservation — is under direct threat. The broken promise sits at the centre of the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, where Labour and the Greens will contest the seat vacated by former prime minister Keir Starmer. Disappearing green space and housing affordability have merged into a single question: who is this neighbourhood being rebuilt for? The answer, based on the planning documents, appears to be office tenants and market-rate buyers. Responsibility for the Euston site now falls between public planners and private developers in a way that dilutes accountability. HS2 was approved directly by parliament, bypassing normal local planning. The private developer Lendlease is drawing up commercial and residential plans for the surrounding site, with Camden council expected to rule on the application next year. Nobody owns the whole picture, which means nobody owns the broken promises. Lendlease says the scheme will deliver up to 1,500 homes, but neither the final count nor the affordable housing share has been determined. Residents note that "affordable" in this context means 80% of market rate — not social housing. As Alice Brown of Climate Emergency Camden put it: "It's a very small amount of affordable housing for the loss that's being suffered." Dorothea Hackman, a governor at nearby Netley primary school, warns that Camden's failure to provide family-sized housing is driving families with children out of the borough entirely. Labour has held the council since the 1960s and the parliamentary seat since 1983. That dominance may now be a vulnerability. Residents describe council decisions as either "performative or money generating," with every development and sell-off seen as detrimental to locals. Green party leader Zack Polanski is positioning himself as an alternative who would hold the council to account — and some residents are listening. The government estimates the full HS2 line between London and Birmingham will open between May 2040 and December 2043. Camden's Euston area plan extends to 2051. These are generational timelines being imposed on a community that has already lost its parks, is losing its families, and has been told the replacement green space it was promised is no longer coming. The byelection is a pressure valve, not a solution. But it may be the only moment when the extraction becomes visible enough to force a renegotiation of what residents are owed.
