Plans for a new airport in the Thames estuary have received another set-back. Favoured by London Mayor Boris Johnson, the scheme is currently being studied by the Government-appointed Airports Commission.
Three reports prepared for the Commission were published on 11 July, one of which said: “Overall, the challenges to transition are considerable and amount to a significant cost and risk to the tax-payer in terms of commercial negotiations, infrastructure development and potential failure.”
Another of the reports said that Heathrow Airport would have to close if the estuary scheme got the ‘green light’ and that its owners would have to be paid compensation of between £13.5 billion and £21.5 billion.
The third report said that transport improvement costs associated with the new airport — such as widening the M25, M2 and A2 — could be as high as £17.2 billion.
Two new Heathrow runway schemes and one new Gatwick runway scheme made it on to the Commission’s short-list, announced at the end of 2013.
The Commission is expected to make a decision on the estuary airport proposal later this year, and its final report, recommending where airport expansion should take place,
will come out after the General Election.