Don’t dither on runway ruling, Tories are told

POLITICIANS and business leaders demanded that the Government push ahead with Sir Howard Davies’ controversial recommendation to build a third runway at Heathrow.

Lord Adonis, a Labour peer and former transport secretary, said: ‘The report makes it difficult for Gatwick to proceed. The only serious option on the table is Heathrow. But it doesn’t mean it will happen.

‘The choice now isn’t between Heathrow and Gatwick, it is between action and inaction. And there is nothing more inviting for politicians when it comes to airport expansion in London than inaction – it is very easy to not take a decision.’

Speaking at the RunwaysUK conference in London yesterday, Adonis added: ‘The early omens are not particularly encouraging. Government did not particularly take a decisive lead last week. It doesn’t take six months to read the report.’

Representing campaign group Let Britain Fly, Michael Ward, managing director of luxury department store group Harrods, said: ‘Without new runways we are stifling economic growth. The annual cost of dithering is billions of pounds.’

Katja Hall, the CBI’s deputy director general, demanded that the Government ‘get it built’ and said the UK is due to lose more than £31bn in trade over the 15 years it will take to complete Heathrow and further delay will cost billions more.

Also speaking at the event, Heathrow chief executive John HollandKaye admitted a congestion charge for people driving to the airport is being considered.

Charging motorists who drop off passengers at Heathrow up to £20 a time, in a bid to persuade them to take public transport, is a last resort to reduce air pollution and keep it within legal limits.

In a message to delegates at the conference, Chancellor George Osborne said the Government would give Davies’ report the ‘respect and detailed consideration it deserves’.