Flying in the Face of Logic

Building a London Heathrow third runway could set the UK back by as much as £62.5bn say documents prepared by the Department for Transport. The expected growth in GDP is only up to 0.05%: 90% less than the 0.5% previously stated. These tiny gains are outweighed by the enormous social and environmental impact of building the runway.

Sarah Quinn said: “In its desperation for a fraction of a percent of GDP growth, this government has lost its way. They said they were backing airport expansion in the south-east for economic reasons but their own analysis shows it won’t deliver. As Liberal Democrats have consistently said; the economic argument for expansion does not add up.”

However, the government is still rushing ahead.  The D f T report says that the £40billion project would generate an extra quarter of a million flights each and significantly harm the health and wellbeing of up to 3 million people living near Heathrow. 800 homes would also be demolished.

Sarah concluded: “It is clear that a Heathrow expansion is not compatible with our climate commitments and it cannot be delivered anywhere near legal noise and air pollution limits. Real leadership delivers economic progress without causing major environmental damage and ignoring the interests of the communities in the flight path.”

Lib Dems also propose to reform the taxation of international flights to focus on those who fly the most, while reducing costs for ordinary households who take one or two international return flights per year. We would Introduce a new super tax on private jet flights, and removing the VAT exemptions for private, first-class and business-class flights.