Who do you think are buying the land... A more cynical man than I might think this, was the idea all along; confirming that hunch would take more research than I am willing to put in.

In this instance, almost of it will be sold to the famers from whom it was originally purchased.

So though no longer having a planned train line through their land would restore the value of their farms, I don't know that it counts as enriching Tory mates.

A lot of farmers do vote Tory, but many do not, and those who were forced to sell land to the state for HS2 by the Tories probably don't.

So it truly is only to stymie future governments.

It just means more has to be spent to do so. It's to sabotage the costs of going back on their decision.

They will sell it off cheaply. The beneficiaries will then sell it quickly for a profit at the right price. If people start building work on the land, then all this has to be factored into the repurchase price. It will mean court battles for each piece of land where there is dispute over the price. You will need very single piece of land to make the purchase viable. It is not like you skip a housing lot or two and just build a bridge over it.

Because it's doubly expensive. A future government will have to explain why, when they've already lost money, they're spending more on the same thing.

For sure they could do it, but the argument is worse this way.

I wonder if the people they're selling it to have some corrupt business dealings with the people doing the selling. I can imagine this being a way to make a lot of money if you're corrupt. I have no reason to believe the Tories or anything but corrupts so I bet you if you follow the money you'll find somebody who just made a whole bunch