That brings to an end our coverage of reaction to the news HS2 will go ahead.

Our BBC Business colleagues have additional live coverage of the development here.

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HS2 and the mixed Midlands messages

Chris Langton is a resident of Warwickshire village Burton Green - a place HS2 will effectively cut in half once high-speed trains start running through.

That might not be for a few years yet, although it seems certain following the government's backing of the project earlier.

Mr Langton had been hoping the prime minister would scrap the scheme. That hasn't happened, and the Burton Green resident of the last 37 years said Boris Johnson was "not brave enough to make the sensible decision".

In the meantime, there's a choice for those in Mr Langton's position - should I stay or should I go?

Those living closest to the route had the legal right to have HS2 Limited buy their homes at market value. Those further away, like Mr Langton, don't have the same guarantee, and face a conundrum that's mostly financial in nature.

Mr Langton estimates he could lose up to £100,000 if he sells his home, fearing a decrease in property values there.

But staying means living in a divided village with high-speed trains running through it.

Birmingham City University which neighbours the HS2 route has welcomed today's decision, calling it "positive news".

Image source, HS2 Ltd

Deputy vice chancellor, Professor Julian Beer, said the university had already invested £340m in its site, "and the Curzon station is right here on our lawn".

"This is very positive news for us as a university."

Image source, HS2 Ltd

Mr Beer added the local business community had been on a "knife-edge" waiting for the announcement.

He said: "The prospect of HS2 not going ahead - it's not just in the investment being made in the line itself and in the development of HS2, it's the calculation of the money that wouldn't have been coming into Birmingham, the Midlands and the north."

The Labour MP for Warwick & Leamington, Matt Western, was unimpressed by today's announcement, saying when the scheme was first mooted ten years ago "we were not talking about a climate emergency".

He said: "Given the landscape has changed in that respect, surely the government should be significantly investing much more than is being proposed today behind regional, sub-regional transport systems, buses and cycle routes, on the levels that the French and continentals are doing."

Image source, Parliament Live

The Conservative MP for Crewe and Nantwich, Kieran Mullan, welcomed the news, as well as the further promise of £5bn for bus services and cycling routes.

In the Commons earlier, he asked the prime minister that when it came to investment "can we ensure that local residents get a really strong voice in deciding where these new buses go and how often they go there"?

Government support for buses has fallen by almost 30% in real terms over the past decade.

Boris Johnson said it was "vital that the expansion of local bus services should meet demand".

"Proper intergration" of HS2 with regional transport strategies will "vastly improve journeys for millions of commuters who use the existing network," says the head of local transport group Midlands Connect.

Image source, HS2 Ltd

Sir John Peace said: "HS2 is already a catalyst for huge regeneration in Birmingham city centre. Now we can get on with bringing the same transformation to the areas around the other Midlands HS2-connected stations: Interchange near Solihull, Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent, Crewe, and the East Midlands HS2 hub station at Toton and Chesterfield."

Midlands Connect is the body behind long-term transport plans for the region, including a proposal for £2bn of improvements to the rail network between the East and West Midlands.

Sir John said: "We must now make sure that the benefits of HS2 are maximised through proper integration with regional transport strategies... using the capacity released by HS2 to introduce 700 additional rail services every day; vastly improving journeys for millions of commuters who use the existing network."

Phil Mackie
BBC News

Boris Johnson has "just declared war on the English countryside," according to campaigners who have spent months living in a protest camp at a Warwickshire wood.

Earlier, the Save Cubbington Wood group gathered around a phone to watch the prime minister's backing of HS2 in Parliament.

One of the members, Matt Bishop, said: "How can you stand up at the climate change conference and say 'we must reverse the appalling loss of wildlife habitat and species' and then press green for go on the destruction of 108 ancient woodlands?"

Asked whether the group would continue to protest at the site, he added: "We are here, we're calling on everyone to stand for the trees and we are not alone."

Riyah Collins
BBC News

John and Diana Levett, whose former home of 26 years will be torn down to make way for HS2, say they've been left saddened by the government's decision today to press ahead with the high-speed rail route.

They lived in the Warwickshire village of Burton Green. It's set to be bisected by HS2 as it sends trains on their way from London to Birmingham.

"We were sad to leave the house and the area, because we had really good friends here," Mr Levett said.

"I think HS2 could have been a lot more understanding and at least realistic about the impact on people."

Riyah Collins
BBC News

John and Rosalie Vine have lived opposite the planned HS2 route on Hodgetts Lane, Burton Green, Warwickshire, for more than 20 years and have no intention of moving.

They say they have seen the village decline since they gathered, tightly packed alongside 200 other residents, into their community hall in March 2010, when the line was announced.

From their home, they look out on to properties formerly owned by neighbours - and now by HS2.

"I think there are only three [non HS2-owned homes] left out of that whole other side of the road," Mr Vine said.

"It's disrupted the community," his wife added.

The prime minister says he will appoint a full-time minister to oversee the project and "restore discipline".

Giving HS2 the go-ahead today "can only be a positive" for the regeneration of the east side of Birmingham, according to Abbie Vlahakis, chief executive of events venue Millennium Point.

She said: "To have the opportunity to have the east side regenerated, and we're not just talking about Millennium Point, we're talking about Digbeth and all the businesses down there, can only be positive."

Birmingham's Grade I-listed Curzon Street Station will be incorporated into plans there for a new HS2 stop.

The regenerated facility, planned for a swathe of land in central Birmingham, will be the first brand new intercity terminus station built in Britain since the 19th century, says the company behind the HS2 project.

The existing historic building will be linked to the new station's eastern concourse at New Canal Street.

Image source, Library of Birmingham

Here's a bit of history:

• Curzon Street opened in 1838, with links to London
• Its architecture was designed to echo that of Euston Arch, where the trains terminated
• Birmingham City Council describes Curzon Street as the world's oldest railway terminus
• Despite its design, it was soon overshadowed by Birmingham New Street in the heart of the city, and closed as a station in 1966

Between Coventry and Kenilworth in Warwickshire lies Burton Green, a small village that's home to 640 people. A place where you would be hard-pressed to find a supporter of high-speed rail.

Residents have been fighting the project - which will effectively split the village in half - for the past 10 years.

Among those watching the prime minister's announcement earlier was Archie Taylor who's lived in the village for 45 years. The railway line will come within about 600m of his home.

"It's the dust, it's the noise," he said, "and above all, it's the taking down of the ancient wood, the hedges and effect on our greenway which is a very precious asset."

The Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street says he's "delighted" at today's decision by the government to commit to HS2.

Work is already under way at Curzon Street in Birmingham to prepare the ground for where a new HS2 terminal will be built.

Mr Street said: "Everyone's worked very hard to make the case for this, and that's all about bringing jobs to Birmingham and the West Midlands.

"The ticket prices - we don't know those yet - but [HS2 has] given a very clear commitment that they will be affordable. And also it will improve the conditions on our existing local railways by taking the high speed trains off the local track and that's got to make a difference quickly."

Mr Street, Conservative, is seeking re-election as mayor this year. Earlier, Labour candidate Liam Byrne said he would work to ensure that whoever won the £25bn contract to make HS2's trains, they would build them locally.

HS2's government backing this afternoon has been described as a "costly and damaging mistake" by Friends of the Earth in the West Midlands.

Campaigner Chris Crean said the scheme would "threaten wildlife, destroy ancient woodlands and do nothing to reduce climate-wrecking pollution".

He added: "The estimated £100bn earmarked for this project would be better spent fixing the dilapidated commuter rail network and funding other initiatives to encourage people out of their cars.

“The government’s £5bn sweetener on bus and cycling infrastructure is a nod in the right direction but falls way short of the investment required to build the low carbon transport infrastructure that the climate crisis demands.”

Peter Plisner
BBC Midlands Today

Construction work for HS2 is already under way near Solihull and following today's announcement, there will be more throughout the region.

HS2 contractor Steve Paskins welcomed the announcement, saying workers could now "push on and carry on our works - and there's a lot of work to be done".

He added: "People can now feel more secure about their futures."

Local developers, planning one of Birmingham's tallest buildings, have also welcomed the news.

Anthony McCourt of Court Collaboration said: "Without a doubt we'll see a High Speed Two bounce as a result of this enormous decision today by the government."

As plans for HS2 are confirmed, homes in Burton Green will be bulldozed to make way for the track.

Phil Mackie
BBC News

The HS2 announcement is a massive moment.

Birmingham's skyline has been transformed over the past decade since HS2 was first announced, and I've been told there are a lot of other projects that will come now the green light has been given. Tens of thousands of jobs and tens of millions of pounds of investment has already come into the city.

But while the urban West Midlands will broadly welcome today's announcement, I know that once you get to the surrounding areas of Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire, they don't see much benefit to this.

Instead, those areas see a lot of money spent on what they would call a white elephant; massive investment coming just to ruin their countryside.

Alongside these issues, this is quite an important political moment for Andy Street, the Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands - there's an election campaign on now.

His Labour challenger, Liam Byrne, has chipped in today, saying that whoever wins the £25bn contract to make the trains must guarantee they are built locally.

There's been years of work preparing for the London to Birmingham stage of HS2, meaning construction of the southern leg can begin relatively soon.

According to estimates, that part of the railway will be completed between 2028 and 2031.

Andrew Mitchell, Conservative MP for the Birmingham seat of Sutton Coldfield, said HS2 could herald a "huge revolution in train travel in Britain".

He said: "We have to have the confidence of our forebears to make sure that we in our generation build these vital major infrastructure projects."

The wait for a final decision on HS2 has been a "nightmare," according to a councillor for a Warwickshire village that will be bisected by the rail route.

"About a tenth of our houses are now owned by HS2," said Burton Green parish councillor, Paddy Deeley.

"We've had ten years of uncertainty that we've all had to live with."

She said: "This decision has taken a lot longer than most people would have thought and I think most people now are actually glad that the decision has been made because all this uncertainty has been quite horrendous."

She added: "We just hope that they [HS2] deliver everything they've promised to ensure that this community has got some facilities that perhaps it didn't have before."

Michael Fabricant, HS2 critic and Conservative MP for the Staffordshire seat of Lichfield, has described HS2's go-ahead as "very disappointing", and warned the line would cause "immense" damage to the countryside.