As I alluded to a few days ago, the British Government has indeed put back the announcement of a new runway in the London area by six months.
And I continue to maintain that the British Government has zero appetite for urgently needed infrastructure project at the risk of angering potential voters.
The sacrificial lamb – Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin states that further environmental impact studies are needed.
Quoting HM Government release:
The government has accepted the case for airport expansion in the south-east and the Airports Commission’s shortlist of options for expansion. It has also identified the most appropriate way of delivering planning consents for new capacity, it was decided today (10 December 2015) at the Airports Sub Committee.
The government will undertake a package of further work and we anticipate that it will conclude over the summer.
The government will do this quickly so that the timetable for delivering capacity set out by the Airports Commission can be met.
The Airports Commission published a large amount of very detailed analysis on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions for their 3 shortlisted schemes. The government faces a complex and challenging decision on delivering this capacity.
The Airports Commission’s air quality analysis will be tested using the latest projected future concentrations of nitrogen dioxide.
The next step is to continue to develop the best possible package of measures to mitigate the impacts on local people and the environment. This will include a package for local communities to include compensation, maximising local economic opportunities through new jobs and apprenticeships, and measures to tackle noise.
More work will be done on environmental impacts. The government expects the airports to put forward ambitious solutions.
The mechanism for delivering planning consents for airport expansion will be an ‘Airports national policy statement’ (NPS), following which a scheme promoter would need to apply for a development consent order.
Lets be honest – whilst environmental concerns are important and need to be addressed, the political will to say “let’s get on with this” doesn’t exist.
The political factors cannot be underestimated either – a Mayor of London election is due on the 5th May 2016, with the Conservative party member who is standing for Mayor – Zac Goldsmith – being anti-expansion.
Which leads to the question – why did the Government set up the Davis Commission in the first place if not to act on the findings of the report for airport expansion?
Other than to kick a decision down to someone else when the current political elite are in other jobs, or not in power.
And once again, the United Kingdom suffers because of a lack of political will.
The decision also brings Gatwick airport back into play in case the government chooses to expand the capacity at that airport rather than Heathrow – and attempt to move some Heathrow traffic back to Gatwick.
Considering that airlines are going the other direction (switching services from Gatwick to Heathrow), that could be a waste of a runway.
None the less, HM Government and Prime Minister David Cameron have kicked the desiccation down the road for another six months and brought breathing space.
But like it or not – the government and the Prime Minister have to grasp this nettle hard and do something.
Because hubs like Paris CDG, Amsterdam, Madrid, Frankfurt, Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi are laughing all the way to the bank with possible UK customers whilst expansion ideas area still thought about..
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