Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the total economic benefit to each region from expansion at Heathrow Airport.

The Government’s latest estimate, published on 2 February, was that a new runway at Heathrow will deliver benefits to passengers and the wider UK economy of up to £61 billion.

Regions across the country should benefit from new destinations, extra seats and increased frequency of service created by increased capacity at Heathrow.

As part of the consultation on the draft Airports National Policy Statement (NPS) the government was clear that further work was underway to update the evidence base, including revised aviation demand forecasts. The Secretary of State for Transport announced on 7 September that there is a need to conduct a short period of further consultation to allow this updated evidence to be taken into account.