Campaign group claims Government’s economic case for Heathrow is flawed
group HACAN has published a new paper which attacks the Government’s economic
case for expanding the airport. The paper, entitled “
serious flaws in the Government’s economic case.
Central Halls, Westminster , to voice their opposition to the proposals to expand
Heathrow.
Nick Clegg, Peter Ainsworth, the Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for the
Environment. Peter Ainsworth re-enforced the criticism that the Government’s
expansion plans are based on doubtful economics when he said that a decision to
expand Heathrow should not be made on the basis of "a dodgy dossier".
include:
The false assumption that the price of oil will fall from the present level of
nearly $100 a barrel to around $53 a barrel and remain at around that level until
2080;The equally unlikely assumption that over the next 72 years there will be no
increase in the tax on air travel.The false assumption that, if Heathrow doesn’t expand, London will lose businesses
to other cities. The source the DfT cites for this assumption is ‘The economic
benefits of Heathrow’ by BAA – hardly an impartial source. BAA quote their source
as ‘the European Cities Monitor 2007’ by property consultants Cushman and Wakefield
, Healey and Baker. The main finding of that report was that " London has once
again increased its margin over Paris as Europe ’s top city to locate a business"
– hardly proof of the need for a new runway. Indeed the report shows that the
factors considered most important by the 500 top businessmen interviewed were
first, availability of qualified staff; second, access to markets; and third quality
of telecommunications; with external transport links in fourth place.The huge increase in transfer passengers, who bring little benefit to the wider
economy. It is forecast that by 2030 there will be 36 million passengers at Heathrow
transferring from one international flight to another international flight, nearly
twice as many as at present. This number happens to be the same as the expected
capacity of the new runway.
recently from the independent Dutch consultants CE Delftwhich found that the benefits
of expansion at Heathrow were likely to be considerably lower than those claimed
by the Department for Transport.
the economic benefits of Heathrow expansion have been shown to be wildly exaggerated.
The economic assumptions in the consultation document are riddled with flaws.
The Government should scrap this flawed consultation and commission an independent
study into the economics of Heathrow expansion before proceeding any further with
its expansion plans."
its decision in the Summer.
orgnisations represents some 5 million people. Member organisations include CPRE,
Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, The National Trust, RSPB and The Woodland Trust,
together with many local airport groups.
HACAN earlier this month. (see