An urgent decision on additional runway capacity for the southeast of England must be taken within months of next year’s General Election, Sir Howard Davies, chair of the government-appointed Airports Commission, announced yesterday.
Speaking to the Transport Select Committee, Sir Howard, who has been given the task of finding the best option, said ministers would have to address "a significant capacity problem by the mid 2020s"
He said it would have been possible for his Commission to come up with recommendations for increased runway capacity before the General Election in 2015, but Ministers has asked him not to publish his findings until afterwards.
At the same meeting, Sir Howard dismissed yesterday’s comments by London Mayor Boris Johnson, in response to the Airport Commission’s initial findings that suggested additional runways at Heathrow and Gatwick were the best options, as "vulgar abuse".
Johnson is strongly opposed to further expansion at Heathrow and branded the Commission’s findings as "gloopy and tangled", "perplexing" and "biaised".
Sir Howard dismissed the Mayor’s criticism of the report, insisting they were at odds with transport experts, and vowed to "press on with the job".
"I completely dismiss what the mayor has said about our report," he told MPs. "It’s completely at variance with anyone else … As far as the mayor’s concerned we don’t seem to have produced the answer he wants us to produce. We will proceed with our analysis in the way we’ve been asked to do.
"I don’t think it’s at all helpful that he uses this rather colourful language but I guess it’s a matter of style. I don’t think it illuminates the debate to do so. But we will not react, we will simply press on."
Sir Howard’s commission has not ruled out Johnson’s proposal for a new hub in the Thames Estuary, but it has said it needed to do more work on the concept before entering it for consideration.
