In 2015, the Independent Airport’s Commission (led by Sir Howard Davies) concluded that, by 2060, a new runway at Heathrow would create £147 billion for the UK economy.

Parmjit Dhanda, Executive Director of Back Heathrow and Former Labour Government Minister

For the past seven years, my organization has been pushing for Heathrow’s expansion, to deliver the private sector-led investment Britain needs for economic growth.

In 2015, the Independent Airport’s Commission (led by Sir Howard Davies) concluded that, by 2060, a new runway at Heathrow would create £147 billion for the UK economy.

Yet last week, media reports were suggesting the government is still split over whether to press ahead and build Heathrow’s third runway. The project was first proposed by Tony Blair’s government as far back as 2003. Last week, Paul Johnson of the Institute For Public Spending warned that if growth and productivity remain elusive, the government will have no choice but to further raise taxes in the third year of this Parliament. Something no government would wish to do in mid-term.

It’s clear why growth in this country is stagnant – we have had decades of infrastructure investment left on the back burner. Look at London’s Crossrail 2,  over 30 years in planning and it is still nowhere near getting spades in the ground. We urgently need economic growth, and expansion of Heathrow can be the quick win the Government needs to get our economy moving again to avoid the doom loop of ever higher tax rises and ever constrained spending.

Labour does not have the luxury of another 20 years before it decides on Heathrow. Expansion will create up to 180,000 new unionized jobs, 10,000 apprenticeships and it will boost private sector confidence in our economy. However, if the Government fails to move quickly and back the project, Heathrow’s rival airports in Europe and the Middle East, which all have far more runways than Heathrow, will begin muscling the UK out of our crucial trading corridors. After all, Heathrow is our largest port by value of goods, so investing in extra capacity there is crucial to unleashing new trading potential and kickstarting growth.

Some decry Heathrow expansion as too controversial. Well, consider this carefully; an independent Commission proposed it, a Parliamentary vote with a 296 majority backed it, and the Supreme Court has ruled emphatically in favour of it. Doubters may be aware of vocal protest groups, but they should also consider people who live locally and depend on the airport’s future success for their livelihoods. Or those within the proposed construction zone, who have lived with their homes blighted for over 20 years whilst waiting for the project to progress.

Polling by Populus has consistently found more local people supportive of a new runway than in opposition to it.  Just look at the Department of Transport’s own documentation. In 2017, the Department received 62,000 responses to the Lord Davies Commission’s recommendations, with over 53,000 from local people who backed a third runway. They are the silent majority in favour of expansion – the people who work and live within five miles of the airport, from diverse backgrounds and often forgotten in this debate.

Rightly, a third runway will need to meet the challenge of the Government’s tough tests on air quality, noise reduction, job creation and decarbonisation. Hence the airport has worked with a former Executive Director of Friends of the Earth on a world-leading sustainability strategy; championing cleaner fuels, agitation of peatlands to remove billions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere and a plan for new direct rail links to the airport. So, Heathrow will be held accountable to the highest environmental standards any government can set.

The government knows that any additional capacity it gives through a new runway it could just as easily take away if Heathrow fails to meet its promises. It holds the trump card on trade and growth. Now is the time to unleash it.

My own experience of government taught me that delivering the ‘big stuff’ is hard but rewarding. For a mission-led government, it should be a challenge to relish. 

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