Prime Minister David Cameron has "pledged" that opponents will not be allowed to block the £17 billion scheme for a high speed rail line from London to Birmingham.

Asked by the Birmingham Post if opponents of high speed rail might succeed in blocking the plan, David Cameron said: “No – the Government is committed to HS2.”

The Prime Minister was visiting the city to address the annual conference of the Local Government Association.

Mr Cameron faces opposition from some of his own Conservative MPs, who have constituencies along the line, including Chris White (Warwick and Leamington), Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth and Southam) and Dan Byles (North Warwickshire and Bedworth).

But Mr Cameron said: "I think it’s right that Britain gets on board the high speed rail revolution.”

He promised that the line would reach the North-east and North-west after the first London to Birmingham stage was complete.

“The whole point about high speed rail is that London to Birmingham is just stage one. That’s always been essential. This links and shrinks – links the whole country and shrinks the distances between our greatest cities.

“If you want to make sure that in the future the whole of the country can share in the economic prosperity, and it’s not so constrained to the South-east, I think this is the sort of thing that needs to go ahead.”

He pointed out that other nations such as China were already building high speed rail lines and he was even more convinced after his meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.

“Meeting with Premier Wen, where they’re building high speed rail all over China – they’re linking two of their biggest cities, they are going to have a time between them of just 45 minutes. And I want London and Birmingham to be the same.”

The Prime Minister said he was relaxed about suggestions China might help to fund the British line.

“I think Britain’s very open to investment from overseas, including investment in our infrastructure. What matters is whether this is built on time and on budget, is it done efficiently, effectively, is it good value for money?

"Should we welcome investment in our infrastructure? Yes, of course we should.”

Information from Birmingham Post