Plans to expand Heathrow must be ditched once and for all in favour of building another runway at Gatwick, a cabinet minister has warned.
Justine Greening, a former transport secretary, said that pressing ahead with expanding the airport would only compound the mistake of putting Britain’s hub airport “in the wrong place”, while causing unfair noise and air pollution for tens of thousands of people.
Ms Greening, the international development secretary, opened the door to backing a hub airport in the southeast. An extra runway should be added to Gatwick as a “capacity stop-gap” while ministers “finally devise that long-term strategy”. She made the plea in her final submission to the review overseen by Sir Howard Davies into the future of Britain’s aviation capacity. Ms Greening has long opposed expanding Heathrow, which would affect swathes of her Putney constituency.
The issue of airport expansion is set to cause great problems within all the main political parties. However, the government has ensured that the divisions will not be exposed until after the vote. Sir Howard’s recommendations will arrive after May 7.
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary, is opposing the expansion of Heathrow. Divisions are likely to arise within Labour, with Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, keen to push ahead with Heathrow. Ed Miliband almost resigned over the last Labour government’s decision to do so.
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In her submission, Ms Greening warned that the idea of extending Heathrow’s existing runways would cause a safety risk for planes taking off and trying to land. She said the second option of building another runway would cause unfair noise and air pollution, and upheaval in a populated area.
“Heathrow expansion would compound the existing, detrimental consequences of our hub airport being in the wrong place, for our infrastructure, air pollution and noise borne by local communities,” she said.