Graham Brady MP & Gavin Shuker MP: MPs from St Ives to Hartlepool 'stand ready to deliver' Heathrow expansion
1922 Committee Chairman Graham Brady MP and Parliamentary Labour Party Transport Committee Chair Gavin Shuker MP join forces to write in support of Heathrow Airport expansion.
This week the UK has moved a step closer to delivering a vital piece of national infrastructure.
After weeks of speculation the Government has confirmed that Heathrow is the preferred option for new airport capacity, ending the deadlock on airports that has plagued the country for more than 40 years. Whatever your view on whether Heathrow is the right option, everyone should be pleased that a decision has finally been made in the national interest. Our competitors in Europe and the Middle East have been watching us and now finally a decision has now been made. We are clear that we cannot afford further delay.
By choosing Heathrow, we are guaranteeing the UK will have the capacity needed to safeguard our future as a trading nation. We are saying yes to a project that will help spread prosperity across all our great cities and regions. We are strengthening our hub airport so that Britain can compete on the world stage. This is a project that will span at least two parliaments and has the strong, cross-party support necessary to succeed.
Importantly, this decision puts the project firmly into the delivery phase. Over the next year a formal planning process will commence, providing opportunity for voices to be heard and plans finalised.
There are challenges ahead before we deliver the third runway. It is therefore understandable that the Government will set out a National Policy Statement before a vote in Parliament next winter. Final parliamentary approval will provide certainty and ensure there are no further delays. Heathrow is truly a national project with national cross-party consensus. This is why we are so confident that expansion will be delivered and the benefits will be realised.
MPs also have an important role scrutinising both the Government’s and Heathrow’s plans. It is our job to ensure they deliver the economic benefits and regional connections outlined by the Airports Commission, while mitigating the local and environmental impacts. We understand the concerns of some of our colleagues who represent areas close to Heathrow. Our support for the project is contingent on Heathrow making good on their promises to deliver a world-class compensation package and continue to reduce noise and air quality impacts. As the Airports Commission said, Heathrow must get bigger and better.
As MPs from opposite sides of the House, let us be clear it is not a question of whether the new runway gets built, but how.
Be in no doubt. We, alongside the vast majority of our colleagues in Westminster, support Heathrow expansion and want to see this project delivered.
Heathrow is the option that was unanimously selected by the independent Airports Commission following a three year study. A study that was commissioned by Government, undertaken by experts in their field and which has held up to scrutiny time and again.
The Airports Commission report contains all the evidence needed by MPs in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and in every one of England’s regions, to understand the enormous benefits expansion at Heathrow will deliver.
Add to this the work Heathrow has done to ensure their plans deliver a world-class airport while being fair to their neighbours and it is clear why Heathrow has such strong support.
Heathrow has committed to a ban on all night flights, a legally binding noise envelope and a compensation package for the local community of more than £1 billion, accepting or exceeding all the tough environmental conditions set out by Sir Howard Davies.
It is for these reasons we are confident that Heathrow will pass a vote in Parliament next winter with the overwhelming support of MPs from across parties and from all the nations and regions of the UK.
This consensus is important. Airport capacity is an issue of national importance and should be supported in the national interest.
With the decision now made, MPs representing constituencies from St Ives to Hartlepool stand ready to deliver it through Parliament.
Graham Brady MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party 1922 Committee & Gavin Shuker MP, Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party Transport Committee
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