Contents
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
Regional News
Industry News
House of Lords
Media News
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
28 June 2013
25 October 2013
7 March 2014
Meetings are held at 11am, Local Government House, Smith Square, SW1P 3HZ, with lunch provided afterwards, location map.
Regional News
25 March 2013 – The group, Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) has dismissed the Government’s newly published aviation policy framework as ‘a hollow sham’. They argue that the new framework lacks measures to control noise, air pollution or climate change.
25 Mar 2013 – The Welsh Government is in talks with the airline Ryanair about operating from Cardiff Airport. The Welsh Government has assembled a due diligence team which includes business advisory firm KPMG and law firm Eversheds to help facilitate a deal. KPMG has been incentivised to get as low a price as possible for the Welsh Government.
26 March 2013 – Gatwick Airport has opened its new £6.4 million pier-served A380 stand. To mark the occasion, Emirates, the world’s largest A380 customer, operated a one-off A380 aircraft into Gatwick. The new stand now enables Gatwick to accommodate A380s, the world’s largest commercial aircraft flying, on scheduled services in the future. Scheduled A380 services would also support the progress Gatwick has made in attracting new direct long-haul routes, particularly to emerging markets such as China, Vietnam and Indonesia. The completion of the new stand offers existing Gatwick airlines, as well as new airlines, the opportunity to serve more long-haul destinations going forward.
26 March 2013 – Plans have been approved for up to 120,000 flights using London City Airport every year. Permission is now being sought for seven additional aircraft parking stands, along with an extended terminal building and a new eastern passenger pier to be built to accommodate more flights and passengers.
27 Mar 2013 – Edinburgh Airport has placed highest out of any UK airport in the second Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency League Table, published annually by the Environment Agency. The CRC scheme, which aims to significantly lower UK carbon emissions, sees participating companies annually report their energy consumption to receive a score which represents their efforts in reducing emissions.
28 Mar 2013 – Children living under the Heathrow flight path are believed to be suffering up to two-month lags in their reading development as a result of aircraft noise. Hounslow council has cited an international study which found that aircraft noise could lead to a ‘significant impairment’ in reading development, as well as affecting long-term memory and motivation. The research was led by the University of London.
29 Mar 2013 – A new bus service has been launched in Bristol to improve its international links. Travellers wanting to visit Bath from Bristol Airport can access a new hourly service. The service starts in Bath at 3am and the last bus to Bristol Airport leaves the city at 10pm. Tickets cost from £17 for an adult return to £45 for a family return.
Industry News
10 Feb 2013 – Dubai International Airport has announced the successful completion of the opening of Concourse A, the world’s first purpose-built facility for the Airbus A380. All 20 A380 capable contact gates and Emirates’ First Class and Business Class lounges, which comprise 29,000sqm of the facility, are now fully operational after a five-week-long phase-in period.
25 March 2013 – Monarch Airlines undertook its first flight to Gibraltar from Birmingham on Saturday 23rd March. For summer 2013 there are now over 27,000 seats available on the new Birmingham to Gibraltar route; this is the first of three new routes Monarch is launching from Birmingham Airport. Services to Bordeaux and Split will both launch on 22nd May.
26 March 2013 – Travel companies operating in the UK must provide consumers with clear, transparent and timely information when advertising and selling flights and holidays, states new guidance launched by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) today. The guidance is aimed at airlines, price comparison websites, travel agents and tour operators, and is designed to make sure the travel industry is fully aware of its responsibilities under existing consumer legislation.
27 March 2013 – The CAA has launched a new training package to highlight the issue of pilot monitoring, www.caa.co.uk/monitoringmatters, aimed primarily at flight training instructors. The Monitoring Matters package is made up of five video re-enactments of real life incidents where poor or non-existent monitoring compromised safety. The videos are accompanied by a major guidance document. The various components of the package can be viewed or downloaded from www.caa.co.uk/monitoringmatters. The video scenarios are acted out by serving airline training instructors.
28 March 2013 – Ambassador Tim Barrow and British Embassy colleagues welcomed the first flight of a new British carrier into Russia. The EasyJet aircraft landed at Moscow’s Domodedevo Airport from London Gatwick and now expects to fly more than a quarter of a million passengers between Moscow and London annually. Flights between London and Moscow will operate daily, increasing to twice daily from 15 April. EasyJet will also be launching services between Moscow and Manchester on March 28, allowing a further 60,000 passengers a year to take advantage of the first-ever direct scheduled link between the two cities.
28 Mar 2013 – Ryanair announces a new partnership with Europe’s largest scheduled coach operator, National Express, offering Ryanair passengers travelling to/from London and Manchester affordable and direct coach travel. Ryanair passengers travelling to/from London Gatwick, London Luton, London Stansted and Manchester can travel National Express directly to and from the airport door by booking online on the airline’s website or purchasing tickets onboard flights in the UK. Approximately one-third of the National Express network operates to airports, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
House of Lords
Hollick – Infrastructure expenditure
25 March 2013
Lord Hollick, Labour peer: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been spent on infrastructure projects in the current financial year, and how that figure compares with that in the previous financial year.
Lord Deighton, Commercial Secretary to the Treasury: My Lords, we are spending more on infrastructure projects this year. Capital spending by the departments responsible for economic infrastructure—DfT, DECC and Defra—is increasing. The transport budget, for example, rises from £7.7 billion last year to £8 billion this year, then £8.7 billion next year and £8.9 billion in 2014-15, which is more than at any point under the last Government. This has been possible because the Government increased infrastructure spending by £10 billion over the past two Autumn Statements, increases which the Budget committed to making permanent, with a further £3 billion a year from 2015-16.
Lord Hollick, Labour peer: I thank the Minister for that Answer. However, the Office for Budget Responsibility reported a rather different situation last week, when it announced that public sector net investment would fall by 34%, from £38.7 billion in 2010-11 to an estimated £25.5 billion in the current year, 2012-13. The OBR also forecast that, taking into account all the measures so far announced, including those announced in the Budget last week, there would be zero growth in infrastructure spend between now and 2017-18. Will the Minister please explain why these measures have failed, and continue to fail, to boost overall infrastructure investment, and which additional measures he plans to introduce to improve the dire forecast for the next five years?
Lord Deighton: My Lords, first, it is necessary to clear up the numbers. There is a significant difference between public investment numbers and investment in infrastructure. Public investment includes huge investments in health and in defence, so there is a significant difference there. Also, if you look at the national infrastructure plan, you see that approximately 80% of the investment that we expect over the next 15 years in fact comes from the private markets and not from public capital expenditure.
Lord Flight, Conservative peer: My Lords, the national infrastructure plan has identified some £200 billion of energy infrastructure investment and £200 billion of communication and transport infrastructure investment. What proportion of that total does the Minister estimate might be under way by the end of five years, and to what extent are any delays caused not by the absence of finance—where sovereign funds and others are willing to put up the money—but by planning and environmental legal constraints in this country?
Lord Deighton: I thank my noble friend for that question, which focuses us on the issues to do with accelerating the delivery of this very important programme. With respect to the proportion that will be under way within this Parliament, this Government have focused activity on the top 40 programmes and projects, which accounts for about £200 billion of the £400 billion my noble friend refers to. Approximately 20% of those projects are currently in construction, and we would expect that proportion, by 2015-16 and the end of this Parliament, to be approximately 50%. There is no question but that the gate that most constrains our ability to accelerate the stream of projects is to do with the variety of planning regulations that surround any major public infrastructure investment.
Lord Soley, Labour peer: Do I take it from the Minister’s enthusiasm for private sector investment in infrastructure, with which I wholly agree, that he supports the expansion of Heathrow Airport?
Lord Deighton: If I may say, my Lords, those are two quite separate questions. I am very enthusiastic about private sector investment. Infrastructure investments lend themselves to financing in the private markets because they generate a cash flow that can repay those investments. The question about Heathrow Airport is an entirely separate one, although I accept that airports are a particularly attractive investment proposition for the private markets.
Lord Barnett, Labour peer: My Lords, is not the difference between the figures that he quoted and those quoted by my noble friend Lord Hollick that the previous figures were allocated but not actually spent?
Lord Deighton: I bow to the noble Lord’s extensive experience in managing public expenditure. There is absolutely a distinction between what is allocated and what is spent. There is a small additional amount this year that is under spent, but it is in the region of £2 billion, which is consistent with previous years. I agree that that is part of the difference.
Lord Adonis, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure: My Lords, the Budget document says that the Government will create an enhanced cadre of commercial specialists in Infrastructure UK to promote infrastructure delivery. How many such specialists are there now, how many will be in the enhanced cadre and when will these specialists be appointed?
Lord Deighton: I thank the noble Lord for drawing attention to an important part of our intervention to improve the public sector’s delivery of these crucial projects. On the question of the amount of resources required, we are not simply discussing the resources in Infrastructure UK here; we are discussing the resources right across government, particularly in the government departments that are charged with delivering infrastructure: the DfT and DECC being the two primary examples. Between now and June, we will work precisely to define their requirements, based on the project load that they are managing, and what they ought to be staffed with in order to make that happen. That gap is thus being defined, and we have to assess what is in the departments as well as what is in Infrastructure UK in order to determine how to fill in that difference.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, Coservative peer, Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs: My Lords, will my noble friend confirm that had he continued with Alistair Darling MP, (Labour, Edinburgh) plans for capital expenditure, capital expenditure would have been severely reduced?
Lord Deighton: My noble friend is precisely right that the restoration to capital expenditure which this Government have made through the 2010 spending round, the two Autumn Statements and the recent Budget, has restored capital expenditure levels to considerably above the previous Government’s plan.
Lord Berkeley, Labour peer: My Lords, can the Minister clarify how much of the amount he quoted in his original Answer is in respect of Network Rail and how much is capital expenditure, whether it is considered to be in the private or public sector, and whether or not it was financed by government guarantee?
Lord Deighton: The plan for Network Rail is included under the high-level output specification, which is a £9 billion plan from 2014 to 2019. Of that £9.4 billion, approximately £4.2 billion has been added during the tenure of this Government.
Lord West of Spithead, Labour peer: My Lords, the Minister mentioned defence infrastructure. Does he not agree that it would be better over the next eight years to spend money on building warships in our warship yards rather than spending money in those yards not to build warships, which is what the plan appears to be?
Lord Deighton: I congratulate the noble Lord on being able to take the Question into the sphere of defence expenditure, which is not my expertise or my brief. One thing that I am working on in all our infrastructure investments is to make sure that they are highly productive. Spending the money that we are allocating well is probably the most effective thing we can do over the next three years.
Media News
25 March 2013 – The British Air Transport Association (BATA) have responded to the publication of the Government’s aviation policy framework.
26 March 2013 – The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called on the Airports Commission to consider additional night-flights, and the use of ‘mixed mode’ at Heathrow. They argue that this would increase London trade links and ease capacity pressures at key times of the year.
The Parliamentary information in this Bulletin is sourced from De Havilland Information Services plc.