So is it the environment, or plain old politics? Heathrow said it was confident it could meet the government’s environmental criteria for a new runway – although it has yet to be told what green hoops it now needs to jump through.
Sources in the Department for Transport say concerns about air quality – and the threat of legal challenge if they are not addressed – are real: there is work to be done to ensure the government meets European Union limits on pollution and this new “period of reflection” would allow it to incorporate new data on vehicle emissions and update the Airports Commission modelling.
Few, though, take that at face value. Heathrow, not unreasonably, points out that it had already set out plans that had been scrutinised for three years by an independent commission. Matt Gorman, the airport’s sustainability director, said: “We set out very clearly how you can grow Heathrow and meet environmental and emission targets. We’re fully confident in those plans.”
Louise Ellman MP, chair of the transport select committee, pointed out: “These are not new concerns.” The government could – and should – have been doing this in the past six months, rather than starting now, she said.
Despite Downing Street’s clear struggle to overcome prominent opposition within its own ranks – and bypass the prime minister’s personal embarrassment at reversing his pledge – Heathrow believes its plans have a significant Commons majority, with more than 400 MPs backing a third runway (a figure that excludes SNP members, who would not oppose it). The airport’s private polling suggests that only 9% completely oppose airport expansion around London and few would only build at Gatwick instead of Heathrow.
While the airport maintains a diplomatic, sunny outlook in this latest hiatus, its wider backers, especially in business, have been unable to bite their tongues and fear the game is indeed up. The transport secretary’s latest use of “hopefully” in promising a decision sparked the director of the Let Britain Fly coalition to declare that “the government has utterly bottled it. It’s pathetic.”
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