Airports Policy

Further response to the government's consultation on the future development of air transport in the United Kingdom

English Heritage published its initial response to the Government's consultation on the future development of air transport in the United Kingdom in November 2002. Since then, the Government has published additional proposals for Gatwick and has extended the consultation period to 30 June 2003. This further response, which takes account of the Government's revised proposals, amplifies our initial comments.

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 English Heritage is the Government's statutory adviser on the historic environment of England. Major infrastructure developments can have a significant impact on the historic environment, and we therefore welcome the Government's intention to produce a national policy for air transport. The need for this has been highlighted by the long delay in reaching a decision on Terminal Five at Heathrow. We agree with the Government that public inquiries are not an efficient or an effective way to develop a coherent or comprehensive national policy.

We particularly welcome the Government's commitment to a sustainable aviation policy that takes long-term social, economic and environmental issues into account. The aviation industry imposes significant external environmental costs that need to be internalised. As well as mitigation costs, the loss of the historic environment as a significant economic and social asset needs to be taken into account, since most of the environmental damage caused by airport expansion is incapable of mitigation. Internalising these costs could affect the demand for air travel and we are therefore concerned that the growth forecasts used in the consultation documents rely heavily on extrapolating current trends. Such projections are inevitably unreliable, and it would be preferable on both environmental and financial grounds to make better use of existing airports within their environmental capacities before committing the country to major developments that may be unnecessary as well as unsustainable.

We cannot, at this stage, give any particular proposal an unconditional green light. Specific proposals will require a sustainability appraisal and a full environmental impact assessment, including, where necessary, a detailed site evaluation. It is impossible on the information available to assess indirect impacts, such as the derived demand for commercial and residential development, except in very general terms.

We have nevertheless made an attempt to evaluate the known impact of the individual proposals discussed in the consultation papers, and our initial comments are attached as an Appendix.

To read this document in its entirety [Pdf].