Decision on Heathrow expansion further delayed

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister has gone back on his “guarantee” made to the House of Commons that he would make a final decision on the proposed solution to a runway expansion desperately needed for the South East of England by the end of the year. The Airports Commission had spent three years preparing what has been described as “the most detailed independent report of its type ever commissioned,” the culmination of which saw a firm recommendation being made for the construction of a third runway at Heathrow airport when it was released in July this year.
On Wednesday night the government’s Airports Subcommittee revealed it would “undertake a package of further work” in order to re-examine the potential environmental impact each of the three proposed development plans. The government has indicated that it anticipates this work will be completed “over the summer” of 2016.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) described the Prime Minister’s actions as “gutless,” and the Institute of Directors (IOD) stated that business leaders would be “tearing their hair out at the news that, yet again, a decision on expanding the UK’s airport capacity has been delayed.”
The UK Board of Airline Representatives has made it clear they feel the delay is politically driven and was dismayed by the delay. London Mayor, the Conservative Boris Johnson, has always been firmly opposed to the Heathrow expansion, preferring to back the option he refers to as ‘Boris Island’, a new airport sited in the Thames estuary. Interestingly, the new delay will allow for the London mayoral elections to take place, with Johnson’s successor as Tory candidate for Mayor being Zac Goldsmith, another staunch anti-Heathrow proponent.
Goldsmith was pleased with Cameron’s decision, stating that “recent events, not least the VW scandal, have raised serious questions about the impact of an expanded Heathrow on air quality,” also indicating that this represented “a massive opportunity… to remove the threat of Heathrow expansion once and for all.”
Gavin Hayes, director of Let Britain Fly said: “Having already spent three years and millions of pounds of taxpayer money looking at the issue in a Commission, including extensive analysis on the economic and environmental impact, this further delay is unacceptable.”
DG John Longworth of the BCC said: “Business will question whether ministers are delaying critical upgrades to our national infrastructure for legitimate reasons, or to satisfy short-term political interests. Businesses across Britain will be asking whether there is any point in setting up an Airports Commission … if political considerations are always going to trump big decisions in the national interest.”
Though careful when acknowledging the “short delay to do additional work on the noise and air quality impacts of airport expansion” as “sensible,” Jock Lowe of the Heathrow Hub option stated “no doubt that expansion at Heathrow is in the best economic interests of the entire country.”