The Government has been urged by Bradford business leaders to rethink plans for the HS2 high-speed rail link between Yorkshire and London.

A large majority of Bradford Chamber of Commerce members have given the proposed £42 billion scheme a big thumbs down in a new poll.

They see little value in the scheme to eventually connect Leeds with London on a new high-speed rail line which will not come to Bradford.

And chamber president Paul Mackie says that even if Bradford was included on the HS2 route, money could be better spent on other transport and infrastructure schemes.

More than half of those surveyed said the case for the new link was not strong. More than two-thirds said they would prefer to see the money allocated for HS2 directed towards other transport projects and only 22 per cent wanted to see the scheme continue. There was also scepticism about the costs of HS2, with 75 per cent expecting spending to bust the allocated £42 billion budget set by ministers.

Only 21 per cent of the 170 companies undertaking the survey felt that HS2 would help Bradford.

And nearly 70 per cent of respondents disagreed with the view that HS2 was needed to cope with future capacity shortages.

Mr Mackie said: “The findings show that Bradford businesses are deeply sceptical about the HS2 proposal.

“As the line is not set to come to Bradford anyway, it is probably to be expected that support here is lower than in places like Sheffield and Leeds “But the divide between support and opposition is so wide that we feel that, even if the scheme were to come to Bradford, there would still be many doubts that this is the best value-for-money project for the rail network.

“Businesses want to see investment in transport improvements – whether that’s infrastructure for capacity and connectivity, services to improve point-to-point links, or other specific measures to ease congestion – but many see this scheme as either too expensive, providing benefits mainly to London, or they challenge the business case being used to defend HS2.

“It’s time to go back to the drawing board and think again.”

Earlier this year Bradford Council refused to back the HS2 plans because it offered no real benefits to the city’s economy. But Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan has urged businesses to get behind HS2 – or face passengers standing all the way to London.

“We have got to all get behind this. We have got to build a willing coalition of interest and start making the case,” said Mr Riordan, who accused ministers of not making the case for HS2 well enough.