Heathrow expansion is bad idea and our airport will be serious loser

THE case for Heathrow airport expansion has always been put forward as a vital investment in the nation’s future.

Unlike the majority of MPs, I voted against.

Air transport is important for travel and leisure as well as for the economic future of our country, especially post Brexit.

But, once again, the London focussed decision-makers, ministers in this government and media commentators confuse the interest of the London region with the national interest – and they are not the same.

Of course the London economy is a major driver of prosperity for the rest of the country.

But the north west is a lot more than a branch plant of London.

There is an excellent airport here in Greater Manchester which is massively, ignored by national planners.

Even now you can fly to and from more destinations from Manchester than from any other airport in the UK.

But, critically, Heathrow’s expansion will take 17 million passengers from regional airports and Manchester will be a serious loser.

Of course, say the Londoners (as one London MP said to me) you can easily fly from Manchester to London and change. And we could. But we shouldn’t have to.

Building our capacity is good not just for Greater Manchester but for some 15 million plus people for whom it’s massively easier to get to Manchester than to Heathrow.

And its better for the environment.

On top of all this, we all, as taxpayers, will have to dip into our pockets to pay for the £10 billion to £15 billion that Transport for London believes is needed for access routes into Heathrow.

Now London and the south east already get some 40 per cent of national transport spending and London alone gets nearly three times as much transport spend per head of population as we do in the north west.

And we need the investment just as much in our infrastructure if we are to create the communities and the jobs of the future.

Today, as I write this, the Committee on Climate Change has published a report showing that the UK is not hitting its climate change obligations – vital if we are to leave a world inhabitable by our children.

Interesting the government scheduled the Heathrow debate three days before its publication, because a bigger Heathrow will have a dangerous impact on green house gas production.

Heathrow expansion is a bad idea and the government got it wrong.