'Third Heathrow runway is not enough,' say business leaders
Institute of Directors calls for further expansion at UK's airports, saying country is 'lagging behind'
UK needs third Heathrow runway, MPs tell May
17 October
A group of 50 MPs from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have urged Theresa May to allow the expansion of Heathrow Airport, despite considerable opposition from members of the Cabinet.
Among the signatories on a letter calling for a third runway to be built at the UK's biggest airport are former Tory cabinet minister Stephen Crabb, DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds and Labour's Stephen Kinnock.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
"Although Heathrow is in London, it is the UK's hub airport," they say. "Other countries are investing in and supporting their hub, or looking on enviously as they hub through other countries.
"Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all have our own successful and growing airports. But Heathrow is our gateway to the world, bringing tourists to our attractions and helping our exporters reach new markets.
"Whether we are connected by road, rail or air, we know that connections to Heathrow are a key driver of investment decisions. Expanding Heathrow will create nearly four times more jobs in our three nations than other options being considered."
According to the BBC, the Prime Minister could make a decision in the next few days. She is thought to be opposed to a compromise solution of building new runways at both Heathrow and Gatwick.
A free daily email with the day’s biggest news and analysis – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Yesterday, the Sunday Telegraph reported May's "own ministers" have warned her backing Heathrow expansion would be a "huge mistake".Senior MPs are said to have told her that any attempt to allow a new runway would run up against determined opposition, including legal challenges that could extend the process for "decades".
A ministerial source said: "If they plump for Heathrow it will be chaos. The whole project would be bogged down in legal challenges for decades. What they have to understand is that Heathrow simply will not happen."
Cabinet ministers including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Education Secretary Justine Greening are opposed to a third runway at Heathrow, adds the paper.
Heathrow third runway decision 'much less clear' after Johnson pulls out of Tory leadership race
20 June
A long-awaited decision on whether to grant Heathrow a controversial third runway has become "much less clear", says the BBC's Richard Westcott.
In the wake of the shock vote for Brexit last week and the equally unexpected immediate resignation of David Cameron, one "senior minister" told the London Evening Standard that the expansion plan was now "dead in the water".
The logic was that Cameron would leave the final call to his successor – and that this was likely to be Boris Johnson, who is a vehement opponent of the plans.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced this morning the decision would be postponed until the post-party conference season parliamentary session, when a new prime minister will be in place.
This means a final verdict will not come until "at least October", the BBC says. It had been expected as early as next week.
The narrative took a surprising twist today when Johnson sensationally declared himself out of the running to be Tory leader. It follows the decision of his Vote Leave campaign ally Michael Gove to throw his own hat into the ring rather than put his support behind the former London mayor.
Westcott says this means the two frontrunners for the top job are now Gove and Theresa May: "Both have constituencies near Heathrow and they've both had to deal with a lot of noise complaints… But neither has ever come out against building a third runway at the airport and it's not clear what they think now."
He adds: "And all of that's assuming one of them becomes leader."
Heathrow was unanimously backed as the best option to boost airport capacity by an independent commission last year, but political opposition – even Cameron once gave a "no ifs, no buts" pledge to block a new runway – has left the door open to its main rival, Gatwick.
Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye said: "If Britain wants to be confident, outward-looking and at the centre of the world's economy, then expanding Heathrow must be a key building block in the Government's Brexit plan."
Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate told the Daily Telegraph: "If you look at Gatwick, we have a tiny fraction of the environmental impact of Heathrow, yet you get all of the same economic benefits, all of the same connections to short haul and long haul destinations, all at a cheaper price."
Is Heathrow's third runway 'dead in the water' after Brexit vote?
28 June
Leaving the EU could halt plans to build a third runway at Heathrow, the airport's boss has warned.
David Cameron had been expected to approve the £17.6bn expansion next month. However, that timetable is now in doubt following his resignation, while its approval could be scuppered by his successor.
At present, favourites to replace Cameron are Boris Johnson, "a staunch runway opponent" who favours building a new airport on the Thames Estuary, and Theresa May, who also has strong reservations about the project, says The Guardian.
Speaking to the London Evening Standard, one senior minister said the third runway looks "dead in the water". It has also been opposed by the new London Mayor, Sadiq Khan.
More than 50 business leaders, including Tesco chairman John Allan and Legal & General chief Nigel Wilson, have signed a letter to The Times arguing that a swift decision will "send a message to the world that Britain remains open for business".
Heathrow's plans were recommended by an independent committee last year and are said to be worth £147bn and 70,000 jobs to the UK economy by 2060.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye re-emphasised his case for expansion in the wake of the Brexit vote.
"Now more than ever, people across Britain are counting on the government to take bold decisions that show we are a confident outward-looking trading nation," he said.
However, the head of Gatwick, Stewart Wingate, will also look to seize on fears of a post-referendum economic collapse in a speech this week, arguing "the time has come" to unite behind expansion of Britain's second-biggest airport instead.
Heathrow 'plays its ace' to secure third runway
11 May
"Heathrow's just played its ace" in its bid to secure government backing for a third runway, says the BBC's Richard Westcott.
In a letter to David Cameron made public this morning, the airport, which is the current frontrunner for expansion, pledged to further restrict night flights as well as to offset pollution and address other environmental concerns.
The promises tackle the two outstanding issues from the Davies Commission that last year endorsed expanding the airport. Heathrow will now "meet or exceed all of the conditions laid down" in that report, notes the Financial Times.
Most striking was the concession on night flights, an issue on which airport bosses had previously dug in their heels. From 2023, landings will be restricted from 11pm, instead of 11.30pm, and until 5.30am, up from the current 4.30am. The commission had called for a ban to apply between 11.30pm and 6am.
The timing of the announcements is key in that it comes just after the London mayoral election. Defeated Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith is a virulent opponent of Heathrow's expansion and it was thought a delay in the government's decision was in part to prevent the issue clouding his campaign.
There could now be little to prevent Cameron endorsing the plans, which, it has been claimed, could boost the UK economy by £147bn and to the tune of 70,000 jobs by 2060. A parliamentary committee last week told the government to "stop dithering".
Opposition to the plan still remains, however.
After his much criticised election campaign, Goldsmith's stock is not what it was, but if he follows through on a pledge to resign the party whip and vote against expansion, he could take a number of Tory rebels with him. Among the high profile past dissenters are Home Secretary Theresa May and party grandee Boris Johnson.
New London Mayor Sadiq Khan also opposes the runway at Heathrow and favoured Gatwick as the more viable option in his manifesto. Given Heathrow's new raft of environmental promises, The Daily Telegraph's Alistair Heath reckons Khan may well give way "in return for more cash for the Tube, for example, or the right to use government land for home-building".
Gatwick's bosses have not given up on their hopes of a third runway. Stewart Wingate, the airport's chief executive, described Heathrow's pledges as a "desperate last throw from a project that has repeatedly failed". He denounced the air quality plans, which are reliant on reducing pollution from road traffic, as failing "the most basic credibility test".
Heathrow runway decision delayed and none are happy about it
11 December
David Cameron's airport committee has delayed the decision on whether to build a third runway at Heathrow until at least next summer – in the process angering almost everyone.
In an announcement confirming reports earlier this week that the final ruling would be kicked into the long grass, the committee said only that it was clear there was a need for new airport capacity in south-east England, to be built by 2030. The Guardian notes that it declined to even name Heathrow as a frontrunner, resurrecting rival Gatwick's hopes of getting the nod.
Postponing the decision is a matter of political expediency. Cameron made a "no ifs, no buts" pledge not to develop Heathrow when in opposition in 2009 so, if it is to go ahead, the call for more environmental evidence might just give enough cover to U-turn without losing face. It will also mean the final verdict will come after the London mayoral election, in which his party is fielding a candidate in Zac Goldsmith who is doggedly opposed to the project.
But it is also widely being seen as a political fudge. Goldsmith's Labour rival Sadiq Khan said it was purely designed to avoid "embarrassing" his opponent. His party's shadow transport minister Lilian Greenwood said the process was "shambolic". The British Chamber of Commerce, which believes not expanding Heathrow on the current timetable could cost the economy £5bn, said the move was "gutless".
Within his own party, Cameron faced criticism for leaving the door open to Gatwick debate by MPs for constituencies that would be affected by its expansion. Crispin Blunt, the Tory chair of the Gatwick Coordination Group, said the delay was a "disgraceful vacillation by government". Elsewhere, advocates for Heathrow, such as the BackHeathrow campaign director Rob Gray, condemned Cameron's "dithering and delaying".
Environmental groups remain unhappy that the government is still committed to expanding airport capacity at all when it is about to commit to stringent new carbon pollution targets. Oliver Hayes, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said instead "it's time the government taxed those who are contributing most to the air pollution" to reduce demand and thus the need for more capacity.
And Willie Walsh, chief executive of the parent company of one of Heathrow's biggest airline customers, British Airways, continued to voice his vehement opposition to the plans as currently drafted. He thinks Heathrow is the best option for expansion, but wants a new plan that abandons what he sees as fripperies such as a new terminal and underground train system to get the cost down from £17bn. Walsh even threatened to check out of the airport altogether, The Times reports.
One person happy with the announcement was Boris Johnson, who says his own favoured plan to build a new airport in the Thames Estuary dubbed "Boris Island" is now back in the running.
"The wheels are falling off the Heathrow fuselage and I think that, now the government has hit the pause button, they will begin to understand with ever greater clarity that, due to the environmental impacts, the legal obstacles and the cost to the public purse, this bird will never fly," Johnson said.