Anger over Heathrow delay, but opportunity for region

BUSINESS groups have slammed the government’s deferral of a controversial decision on whether to build a third runway at Heathrow to ease capacity constraints in the South East.

The British Chambers of Commerce said the move was “gutless”, while the IoD said its members would be “tearing their hair out” and the delay would hamper British companies’ efforts to export more.

“The government has set a very ambitious target of increasing UK exports to £1trn a year by 2020. If they (British firms) can’t fly to emerging markets to make deals, our members are going to find it very hard to meet this aspiration,” said the IoD’s director general Simon Walker.

The CBI said it was “deeply disappointed”, while Terry Scuoler, chief executive of EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, added: “The government has again dithered and avoided the issue. Industry is fed-up and dismayed by the continued excuses and political dilly dallying.”

In a statement on Thursday. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the government needed to “undertake more work on environmental impacts, including air quality, noise and carbon” before deciding on how best to expand airport capacity in south east England.

No decision will be made before the summer of 2016, crucially after the London mayoral election, thereby avoiding a potential political banana skin for the Conservatives, whose candidate Zac Goldsmith MP , is bitterly opposed to the Heathrow option favoured by the independent Airports Commission earlier this year.

MAG, the owner of Manchester and Stansted airports, the country’s third and fourth-largest airports said that unused capacity at its airports could be unlocked if resource was put in to providing better road and rail links to Stansted and Manchester.

In Manchester passenger numbers have reached a record 23 million this year, but with two runways, there is capacity for 55 million per year.

One possible solution to ease capacity constrints could be to include the Manchester Airport HS2 link in the Crewe section of the new line – which the government said last week would be delivered six years earlier than originally planned.

Group chief executive Charlie Cornish, said: “Making the best use of existing capacity will be the only way to meet rising demand before a new runway can be built, something that is likely to take 15 years or more.

“The longer it takes to decide on a new runway, the more it highlights the need for Government to get on with the things that will enable other UK airports to make the biggest possible contribution in the interim.”