Booker investor to oppose Tesco deal
THE EXPANSION of Heathrow Airport could bring in £9bn worth of economic benefit to Yorkshire, according to the airport’s chairman.
Lord Paul Deighton said Heathrow’s third runway could potentially result in 11,200 jobs for the region.
Speaking to Lord Deighton said: “Overall, this project should deliver in excess of £60bn economic stimulus to the region’s outside London and the South East.
“In particular in Yorkshire we’re looking at something like £9bn of potential economic benefits, which translates into 11,00012,000 jobs.
“I like to describe that as the opportunity. The real thing is how we crystallise that and deliver it. These logistic hubs are a very practical way of grounding that opportunity.”
The chairman Airport was in of Heathrow Yorkshire to launch the national Heathrow Logistics Hubs tour.
The national airport will visit 65 long listed hubs, of which 11 are from Yorkshire. Eventually, this number will be whittled down until only four hubs remain.
Those hubs will then help deliver Heathrow’s expansion once it is given the green light.
Lord Deighton said he was “very confident” that the expansion would get the go ahead. He added that there is “a lot of support around the country and a lot of support in Parliament”.
The addition of a third runway should also result in more flights being put on between LeedsBradford Airport (LBA) and Heathrow.
The chairman of Heathrow admitted that it’s a “difficult” subject given British Airways’ recent decision to cut down flights between LBA and the London airport by 50 per cent.
Lord Deighton said: “Clearly one of the big challenges at the moment is with the scarcity of slots. Airlines are confronted with having to make choices amongst a whole load of very busy alternatives and so from time to time the frequency and timing of this route has been under pressure.
“With more slots, clearly profitable routes anywhere will have a better chance of enjoying an improved service.”
He told an audience at LBA: “We are shoulder to shoulder with you in looking to build up the frequency here.”
Charles Johnson, head of planning development at LBA, said: “The Heathrow Logistics Hub is all about economic regeneration, jobs, capitalising on skills that the wider UK economy has to offer.”
He added that LBA, which is vying to be one of the hubs, is “ideally placed to drive this agenda forward”.
A US hedge fund which owns a stake in Booker Group said it plans to oppose Tesco’s £3.7bn takeover bid unless the wholesaler secures a better deal.
Sandell Asset Management said it holds the equivalent of 1.75 per cent of Booker and had expressed its concerns about the Tesco takeover in a letter to Booker’s board. Sandell believes that fair value for Booker shares is between 255p per share and 265p.