Theresa Villiers is shadow transport secretary and argues here that there is no convincing evidence that a third runway at Heathrow would benefit the wider business community in Britain, and that the expansion plans do not have the overwhelming support of the business community.
The Government’s flawed case for a third runway has been attacked from many angles but yesterday’s open letter from an independent group of highly influential business figures deals a fresh blow to a key element of Labour’s argument – their misleading claim that their plans have the overwhelming support of the business community.
The group includes senior businessmen from the City, the media, and high street retail, along with a former adviser to the Labour leadership. Furthermore, this heavyweight list represents just a fraction of those in the commercial world who oppose Runway Three, with many more reluctant to make their views known publicly because they work with or for companies who supply services to the airport or aviation sectors.
What Russell Chambers and his co-signatories on the letter realise is that there is no convincing evidence that a third runway would benefit the wider business community in the UK. A particularly telling point they highlight is that there is no guarantee that construction of a third runway would ensure Heathrow serves a wider range of international and domestic destinations. The expansion of flight numbers permitted with the opening of Terminal Five yielded no such result, with the extra capacity swallowed up by more intensive use of popular and already well-served routes.
Furthermore, simplistic comparisons between the number of runways at Heathrow and its European competitors ignore the reality of London’s system of five busy airports which together offer a wider choice of flights and destinations than either Charles De Gaulle, or Schipol.
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