A Transport Select Committee recommendation that Parliament should approve the Government’s Airports National Policy Statement is an important towards delivering expanding the UK’s airport capacity, including Heathrow, and securing the UK’s long-term prosperity in a global economy, Sir John Armitt said today.

Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission Sir John Armitt said:

“The Government needs to deliver on its commitment to give the UK the infrastructure it desperately needs, and that means ensuring a new third runway at Heathrow can finally get off the ground this year.

“Today’s call by MPs for Parliament to approve the airports statement subject to some additional safeguards removes an important barrier to doing so. There now can be no excuse for not having a parliamentary vote on expanding Heathrow by the Summer, as I’ve previously called for.

“Put simply: we cannot afford any further delay. The UK’s future prosperity needs more than ever an economy that is open to global markets and that means ensuring we have the hub capacity we need to expand our connectivity into new markets and cope with growing demand from both passengers and freight.”

Sir John was commenting on the House of Commons Transport Select Committee’s new Report on the Airports National Policy Statement, published on Friday.

The Commission published its Annual Monitoring Report on the Government’s progress on major infrastructure priorities in January 2018. In the report, it called on the Government to complete all preparatory work needed to enable a Parliamentary vote on the final National Policy Statement to take place as early as possible in summer 2018.