This report by Heathrow Airport Ltd., supported by a consultant team including AECOM* and Quod**, entitled ‘Best placed for Britain’, argues that expanding Heathrow would be the quickest and most economically viable method of airport expansion. The report asserts that:
- In total 202 of the UK’s top 300 company headquarters are in close proximity to Heathrow, and the area has 60 per cent more international businesses (twice as many US, and three and a half times as many Japanese) than the national average.
- If Heathrow Airport were closed the 76,600 people directly employed at the airport would face re-location or redundancy. Direct job losses would be far greater than those that occurred when the largest redundancy in the UK took place at Shotton Steel in 1985 and MG Rover closed its factory at Longbridge in 2005 (both 6,500 jobs), or the worst year of pit closures in the UK, 1984 (30,000 jobs).
- Additional capacity at Heathrow Airport could be delivered ‘around 7 years more quickly’ than any new airport could be built.
- Up to £25 billion of public money would be required to build a new airport.
*AECOM is a global provider of professional technical services to a broad range of markets, including design, planning and economics. Through their work, they create, enhance and sustain the world’s built, natural and social environments.
**Quod provides strategic planning advice and economic analysis to develop an in-depth understanding of the complex social and economic effects of major infrastructure schemes.