WESTMINSTER WATCH GARETH MORGAN The long view
The ongoing runway debacle brings to light what has so far been a lesser-discussed area of airport expansion: Stansted
W
HAT HAPPENS AFTER 2030? That is the date that Sir Howard Davies’ Airports Commission’s
analysis showed one net additional runway was needed by. The UK government has set its ‘direction of travel’ and we are now working through the politics and legality of that with a view to having a final policy in the winter of 2017. Surely that means, bar the final swings of the various campaigns over the next year, the airports issue will be put to bed fairly soon? Not quite. The Commission said that “…even with a third runway at Heathrow, there would be likely to be sufficient demand to justify a second additional runway by 2050 or, in some scenarios, earlier”. Now that we are in the last
throes of the LHR vs LGW decision, surely the government should now be beginning to think about this period? That is certainly the case Birmingham airport and Manchester Airport Group (the owners of Stansted) will be making. In fact, if there is anyone most frustrated by the latest delay it might well be them – they want to start talking about post-2030 seriously. Take Stansted. It’s in effect been squeezed out of the capacity debate after Davies made clear fairly early on that its case wasn’t as strong as LHR/ LGW for immediate expansion. Until the LHR/LGW decision is made, it will always find it hard to be heard on the prospects of its own expansion. There are absolutely MPs that
are interested in the issue – for example, Sir Alan Haselhurst, the MP for Saffron Walden (which encompasses Stansted) is focused on preventing it, and there are Labour MPs on the Stansted
46 BBT November/December 2016
Express route who see the economic good the airport could provide their communities – but it isn’t yet a big issue. It will be their lobbyists’ job to make sure it is eventually. So what does that lobbying look like?
Gareth Morgan is a political lobbyist and director with Cavendish Communica- tions. He is an advisor to the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC).
PROS AND CONS First, there will be the positive side. Expect reports in papers about the economic prospects of the areas around Stansted – such as Harlow in the south, and Cambridge and Peterborough in the north – and how they will be the export engines of the future. About how the hi-tech sectors in the region are driving higher growth than the UK as a whole, and how that region needs an easier way to connect to the world.
We’ll see MPs forming groups to support the concept, major business groups picking up the idea and party conference events on the theme. There will also be the negative side. The politics of airport expansion will mean that the relatively quiet Stop Stansted Expansion grouping will gather its strength again. But most interesting will be the extent that Stansted’s owners try to stymie Gatwick. They know that if Gatwick is prohibited from expanding, then the prospects of Stansted expansion are stronger. Expect to see Stansted supporters backing anti-Gatwick groups and MPs.
They’ll want the fighting over the decision around LHR and LGW to be over... because then it’s their turn.
Stansted airport: squeezed out
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98