19 AUGUST 2019

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Article from BTNews 19 AUGUST 2019

Shapps and Heathrow expansion

The future of the plan to expand Heathrow was called into question last week after newly-appointed transport secretary Grant Shapps questioned in a TV interview whether the project "stacks up" financially.

He told Sky News he was taking "a really, really close look" at the case for a third runway despite MPs having approved the expansion by a large majority in a debate last year.

"Most people accept we need more south-east airport capacity, Parliament's voted for Heathrow," Shapps said. But he added that "there are questions about whether the whole plan stacks up".

He went on: "This is privately funded. They're going to need to make sure they bring in enough income to justify the billions of pounds spent on it, that's something that we'll be taking a really, really close look at."

Shapps was replying to a question on the government’s position on the £14bn expansion given newly-appointed prime minister Boris Johnson’s remark in 2015 that he would "lie down in front of the bulldozers" to prevent it.

Responding to Shapps’ comments, Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, the industry association that represents 13 UK-registered carriers, said: "While airlines support expansion, the transport secretary is right to review Heathrow’s funding. Costs are running out of control and the scheme is too expensive."

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-transport

https://airlinesuk.org

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OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum


David Bentley, Oldham, UK

I agree with Mr Sharp. If it costs too much to land at Heathrow airlines can take their business elsewhere and Gatwick will be quite happy to build a cut-price second runway to accommodate them. Ditto Stansted. You really couldn’t make this up. The country is a joke where infrastructure planning is concerned. No, forget that, it’s just a joke, period. What is Shapps trying to do, to ‘make his mark’? Show he has cojones? It’s pathetic.


Andrew Sharp, St Albans

This is a project which commands wide approval after extensive study. It is going to be wholly privately funded by the owners who have controlled it for some time and presumably know what they are doing. So why is Mr Shapps wasting his time taking a 'really really close look' at the case? Surely this is a job for those investing in it, and not the government?


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