Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the financial value of new runway capacity at (a) Heathrow and (b) elsewhere to the UK economy.

As part of its work, the independent Airports Commission shortlisted three schemes for airport expansion, two at Heathrow and one at Gatwick, following analysis of more than fifty proposals to meet the UK’s long term capacity needs.

On 25 October 2016, the Government announced that it accepted the Commission’s recommendation for a new north-west runway at Heathrow Airport as its preferred option to deliver airport expansion in the south-east by 2030.

The Department has undertaken an economic assessment of the impact of a new runway at Heathrow at a national level, taking account of changes in connectivity across the UK and beyond, which shows significant economic benefits of up to £74 billion. The same assessments are included for the Heathrow Extended Northern Runway and Gatwick Second Runway schemes in the Updated Appraisal Report published alongside the Revised Draft Airports National Policy Statement in October 2017.