By Richard Johnstone | 10 May 2013
The Commons transport select committee has supported the expansion of Heathrow airport, saying proposals for a new airport in the Thames estuary would require ‘huge’ taxpayer investment.
In an examination of the government’s Aviation Strategy, the committee concluded that airport capacity should be permitted to expand to meet growing demand.
The Department for Transport has forecast that without change, there would be ‘unmet demand’ of around 5 million passengers at UK airports in as little as seven years.
After examining all the options, which as well as additional runways and an entirely new airport included a ‘split hub’ policy of connecting Heathrow and Gatwick, MPs said only expansion at Heathrow could provide adequate capacity and maintain a hub airport in the Southeast of England.
Therefore, the government must take the ‘necessary’ step of giving the go-ahead for Heathrow to expand, and the possibility for both a third and fourth runway at the site should be examined, committee chair Louise Ellman said. ‘Heathrow – the UK’s only hub airport – has been short of capacity for a decade and is currently operating at full capacity,’ she added.
Plans to construct an entirely new Thames estuary hub airport would require the closure of Heathrow, which Ellman said was ‘a course of action that would have unacceptable consequences’ for individuals, businesses and the local economy.
Such a major project, which has been backed by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, ‘could not be done without huge public investment in new ground transport infrastructure’, she added.
A report commissioned by the committee from Oxera Consulting estimated that a public subsidy of £10bn–£30bn would be needed for the project. This would cover the costs of surface access such as rail lines and roads, and compensation if Heathrow was closed.
The committee also called on the government to provide more details on plans to improve transport links to existing airports. This has been confirmed as one of the DfT’s spending priorities from 2014, but MPs said it had ‘not gone far enough in setting out exactly what its strategy is’.
The department should develop a national strategy to improve road and rail access to the UK’s major airports. As part of this, an assessment should be made of the surface access requirements from the growth of aviation, particularly if Heathrow expands.
An independent commission, chaired by former Financial Services Authority chair Sir Howard Davies, has already been established by the DfT to examine the case for airport expansion in the Southeast. However, it is not set to report on its preferred options until after the next election.
