MPs slam Government ‘dithering’ over decision on Heathrow’s third runway

Calculations by The Independent show that the daily cost of delay is at least £4m per day

An artist’s impression showing how Heathrow airport could look with a third runway

Ten months ago, Sir Howard Davies’s Airports Commission unanimously recommended that a third runway be built at Heathrow without undue delay. This week, a Transport Select Committee report has slammed the Government’s response, describing it as “political dithering”.

When the Davies Commission reported in July, Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs: “A decision will be made by the end of the year”. The Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, later promised: “We will come back to Parliament in the autumn to provide a clear direction on the Government’s plans.”

Just before Christmas 2015, the Government said it accepted Sir Howard’s shortlist - which also included an extended northern runway at Heathrow and a second active runway at Gatwick - but would need to conduct more work on the environmental impacts of each proposal.

Proponents of a new runway said that the timing was designed to delay a decision until after this Thursday’s mayoral election in London. The Conservative candidate is Zac Goldsmith, who opposes expansion at Heathrow.

A ruling on the next runway was promised by July, but in recent days it appears that the EU referendum may push the decision to the autumn. Calculations by The Independent (see panel, below) show that the daily cost of delay is at least £4m per day - and as much as £6.7m per day for the option preferred by both the Davies Commission and the Transport Committee.

The report, Air transport in the South East, scolds the Government for delaying an endorsement of the Airport Commission’s conclusions. “The Government could have made clear its acceptance of the findings much earlier; it did not need six months to do so.”

The all-party committee says that politicians have been prevaricating over whether to build a new runway at Heathrow or Gatwick for a quarter-century. It concludes: “The creation of the Airports Commission briefly held out the hope that an evidence-based decision would end years of political dithering, but the Government has largely squandered this opportunity by delaying its decision.”

The committee says the arguments about where to put the next runway have been the same for a quarter century: “Choosing expansion at Heathrow or Gatwick is a choice between high gain at higher cost or low gain at lower cost.

“Our conclusions are clear and unanimous: the best answer is to expand Heathrow’s capacity through a new north-west runway.”

The report prompted an angry response from Gatwick airport. A spokesman said: “The Transport Committee’s astonishing statement that the arguments ‘for and against airport expansion have changed little in a quarter of a century’ ignores the significant change within the aviation industry following the break-up of the BAA monopoly in 2009 and the worsening of air quality in the UK which has repeatedly halted Heathrow’s plans in the past.

“Gatwick is the only scheme which can actually deliver the economic benefits airport expansion would bring without the dramatic and unacceptable impacts on noise and air quality.”

Heathrow Airport in London. (AP)

Its bigger rival, meanwhile, said: “The real, independent evidence continues to point towards Heathrow. The Transport Committee and the Prime Minister’s Airports Commission have confirmed that an expanded Heathrow will be an economic powerhouse driving jobs creation across the UK and fuelling a boom in British exports.

“Only an expanded Heathrow delivers and now is the time to make it happen.”

The MPs are demanding a clear timetable for expansion. They say the delay is damaging jobs and the economy; aggravating the uncertainty for people living near the shortlisted sites; and denying connectivity to travellers in the UK regions.

The cost of dithering: How each day’s delay is losing millions

Using the figures calculated by the Davies Commission, and endorsed by the Transport Select Committee, The Independent has inferred a cost per day for prevarication. It assumes that each day’s delay in making a decision is itself delaying by one day the opening of a new runway - something that the Department for Transport disputes. The DfT maintains that the original timings are still feasible.

The benefit for the economy of the preferred option - a third runway at Heathrow - is estimated as £147bn over 60 years. That equates to a daily rate of £6.7m, or almost £5,000 per minute.

If the decision eventually goes to Heathrow Hub - the project to extend the existing northern runway - the daily loss shrinks to £6m, slightly over £4,000 per minute.

Gatwick’s option is the cheapest and fastest, but also brings the least economic benefit. The daily cost of dawdling over a decision is only slightly over £4m, just under £3,000 per minute.