David Cameron triggered years of argument yesterday about where extra runways should be built as he admitted for the first time that the South East lacked sufficient airport capacity.
The Prime Minister said that he was braced for a rough ride as he promised to be bold in deciding how to maintain a global aviation hub for London.
He set the scene for a protracted battle with residents and environmental groups on either side of the capital as he promised to look at the pros and cons of a new airport in the Thames Estuary. But the government review of aviation policy will be delayed until after the mayoral elections in May in an attempt to boost the chances of Boris Johnson, The Times understands.
The Tories ruled out a third runway for Heathrow in their 2010 election manifesto. But while Downing Street said that there would be no U-turn in this Parliament, ministers will listen to arguments for a third runway during the policy review, allowing evidence to be presented that could be used by a future government.
Mr Cameron’s pledge on airports came as he tried to inject a sense of urgency into the rebuilding of infrastructure, promising to “blast through the vested interests and bureaucratic hurdles” and invoking the Victorians for the scale of their ambition.
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In other developments before tomorrow’s Budget, official forecasts are expected to show that Britain will avoid a double-dip recession this year but still suffer from high unemployment and low growth. The Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to predict growth of about 0.8 per cent in 2012 after a stronger start to the year.
Mr Cameron also opened the door to a new generation of “garden cities” such as the developments of Hampstead Garden Suburb and Welwyn Garden City as he pledged new planning rules to boost economic growth.
He defended plans to place motorways and dual carriageways in private Continued from page 1 hands, saying that it was right to use the power of the State to “unlock the dynamism of the market”.
Mr Cameron’s speech amounted to a call-to-arms for the UK, urging the country to turn its back on “years of failure, compromise and lack of ambition” that were characterised by “failure of vision, failure of financing and failure of nerve”.
He said: “The truth is, we are falling behind our competitors. There is now an urgent need to repair the decades-long degradation of our national infrastructure and to build for the future with as much confidence and ambition as the Victorians once did.”
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The airports operator BAA and other British companies say that failure to increase airport capacity would result in passengers flying to emerging market countries in Asia and South America from Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Madrid airports which all have at least four runways and ample spare capacity. Heathrow’s two runways are running at 99 per cent capacity.
After criticism that he has spent nearly two years in No 10 without addressing the issue, Mr Cameron said: “I’m not blind to the need to increase airport capacity, particularly in the South East.”
Gatwick was growing as a business airport for London, he said, but Heathrow was full. “We need to retain our status as a key global hub for air travel, not just a feeder route to bigger airports elsewhere, in Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Dubai.”
Heathrow will ask ministers to consider all options for increasing the number of passengers, including the possibility of using both of its runways for take-offs and landings simultaneously, which would increase capacity by about 15 per cent and increase the number of flights from 480,000 a year to 540,000. At present, one runway is used for take-offs and the other for landings. At 3pm each day the runways switch to give residents living under the flight paths respite from noise.
Ministers will set out new plan which will protect green belts and National Parks, but allow thousands of new homes and businesses.
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“The growth of our towns and cities has been held back by a planning system which has encouraged development of the wrong sort in the wrong places,” Mr Cameron added.