The Institute of Directors has said that the next Government must add two new runways to airports in the South East.

Dan Lewis, the IoD’s senior infrastructure adviser, said: “Whoever wins the upcoming General Election faces a serious challenge in upgrading the UK’s transport and communications network.

“Years of dawdling on new airport capacity have left us lagging well behind our European competitors, and the plan to expand Heathrow is not enough.

“We need two further runways at South East airports and better connections to the ones where there is spare capacity, particularly Stansted.

“The decision to build a third runway at Heathrow took much longer than companies wanted, but it was finally achieved after the choice on location was handed to an independent commission led by Sir Howard Davies.

“The IoD is calling for a similar process, on an accelerated time-scale. There are fears that the UK is running out of space for runways in the South of England, meaning that large businesses and airlines could be forced to move to other European countries.”

The IoD, which represents 30,000 company directors in the UK, also pointed out that Heathrow’s third runway is not expected to be finished until 2028 and that capacity at Gatwick is “filling up fast.”