Ms Greening, MP for Putney in southwest London, where opposition to Heathrow expansion is engrained, is expected to publish a consultation paper on airports later this month.
The London First lobby group is warning that all London airports will reach capacity within 15 years. It says that Heathrow should not be excluded from the review.
The letter in full, and the signatories, are below.
Dear Secretary of State for Transport
International air links are critical to the UK’s economic success. Our ability to win new markets in Latin America, Asia and the Far East against fierce global competition relies heavily on our ability to fly direct and establish trade. But we have fewer weekly flights than our European rivals to seven of the eight growth economies identified by the IMF and our national hub airport – Heathrow – is full. And despite forecasting that in a little over fifteen years all of London’s other major airports will also be full, Government has so far ruled out growth at any of them. This puts the UK increasingly at a competitive disadvantage.
So while we welcome the Government’s review of its aviation policy, its credibility rests on examining all options to meet the vital need for more flight capacity in the short and medium term (next 15 years) as well as in the longer term. The UK needs more hub capacity to support economic growth now, not just in 20 to 30 years’ time. Ruling out growth at London’s major airports – and above all at our national hub, Heathrow – cannot be the right starting point.
Any growth at Heathrow would, of course, have a local environmental impact, principally through increased noise. Action can, and must, be taken to mitigate this. It may be that the review would conclude that the environmental impact would outweigh the national benefits from growth– but this option should be transparently evaluated, not arbitrarily ruled out. We therefore call on government to include the option of expanding Heathrow in its review, alongside all others, and to make its assessment on the basis of the best available evidence. Only that way can aviation policy be put on a more rational and sustainable footing.
Yours,
- Baroness Jo Valentine, Chief Executive, London First
- John Vincent, Director of Strategic Planning and Advisory, AECOM
- Jay Marciano, President and CEO, AEG Europe
- Surinder Arora, Chairman, Arora Hotels Limited
- David Tonkin, Regional Managing Director, UK, Atkins plc
- Chris Elliott, Managing Director - Barclays Infrastructure Funds, Barclays Bank plc
- Tony Pidgley, Chairman, Berkeley Group
- Chris Grigg, Chief Executive, British Land
- Mike Rake, Chairman, BT Group
- Paul Westbury, Chief Executive, Buro Happold
- Ian Durant, Chairman, Capital & Counties Properties PLC
- George Iacobescu, Chairman & Chief Executive, Canary Wharf Group PLC
- Robin Hall, Chairman, Cinven
- Stuart Fraser, Chairman of the Policy & Resources Committee, City of London
- Des Gunewardena, Chairman & CEO, D & D London
- Malcolm Sweeting, Senior Partner, Clifford Chance
- Mike Redican, Managing Director, Deutsche Bank AG London
- Julian Barwick, Executive Director, Development Securities PLC
- Kevin Murphy, Chief Executive, ExCeL
- Mark Elborne, President & CEO, GE UK, GE
- Toby Courtauld, Chief Executive, Great Portland Estates plc
- Peter Vernon, Chief Executive - Britain & Ireland, Grosvenor
- Jonathan Scott, Senior Partner, Herbert Smith
- Ian Carter, President of Global Operations, Hilton International
- Dave White, Managing Director, ITRM
- George Kessler CBE, Group Deputy Chairman, Kesslers International Limited
- Francis Salway, Chief Executive, Land Securities
- Peter Robinson, Chairman, Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP
- Malcolm Gillies, Vice Chancellor, London Metropolitan University
- Charlie Millard, Director, Head of Office, M Moser Associates Ltd
- Mark Reynolds, Deputy Chief Executive, Mace Ltd
- Martin Roberts, Partner, Head of London Office, Pinsent Masons
- Ray Auvray, Executive Chairman, Prospects
- John Rhodes, Senior Director, Quod
- Jasminder Singh, Chairman, Radisson Edwardian Hotels
- Andrew Walters, Chief Executive, Regional Airports Limited
- Nigel Rich, CBE, Chairman, Segro
- Irvine Sellar, Chairman, Sellar
- Andreas Markides, Chairman, SKM Colin Buchanan
- Gareth Pearce, Chairman, Smith & Williamson
- Tim Hancock, Managing Director, Terence O'Rourke
- Mike Nichols, Founder and Chairman, The Nichols Group
- William McKee, Chairman, TIlfen Land
- Vincent Clancy, Chief Executive Officer, Turner & Townsend
- Malcolm Grant, President and Provost, UCL
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