Heathrow Airport expansion gets go ahead
news13th June 2018
It’s been three years since it was concluded that a new northwest runway at Heathrow was the best option for southeast airport expansion by the Independent Airports Commission. Finally, the government has agreed.
A final proposal has been put forward by the government for an airports national policy statement, backing the £15bn runway project.
The project has taken time to get moving due to substantial opposition. The government has stipulated a £2.6bn compensation package, including noise insulation and public amenity improvement to ease opposition.
This is 10x bigger than when the proposal was first approved back in 2009, and includes £700m of noise insulation for local homes and £40m of insulation for schools and community buildings.
125% of the full market value has been offered for homes in the compulsory and voluntary purchase zones, as well as stamp duty, moving costs, and legal fees.
Development consent has still not been given for the project. The third runway planning system involves two separate processes. One will set the policy (today’s NPS), and if parliament votes in favour of it, a second process will obtain development consent, including a public examination by the independent planning inspectorate.
Deputy director-general of the Confederation of British Industries, Josh Hardie, said: “It’s fantastic that the new runway at Heathrow is getting closer to take-off. All the more so as the United Kingdom has waited for nearly half a century for this decision.
“Expanding our aviation capacity, and creating new flight routes to rapidly growing markets, is mission critical to ensuring Britain can compete on the post-Brexit world stage. The new air links the runway will create will unlock growth and help create jobs at home, and enable more businesses – especially our many innovative and ambitious small and medium-sized ones – to export their goods and services to booming markets.”
Written by Ian Johnson