Third Heathrow runway 'will leave UK £5bn worse off'

A third runway at Heathrow Airport will leave the UK £5 billion worse off, according to a report from an independent think-tank.

The £5 billion includes £2.5 billion of negative impacts on the local community around the west London airport, the report from NEF (the New Economics Foundation) said.

Labour reiterated its support for an extra, third, runway at Heathrow in its General Election manifesto last week, but the Conservatives and Lib Dems said they were opposed to expansion plans at the airport.

To evaluate the third runway's benefits, NEF said its researchers had used the same economic modelling programme as the Department for Transport (DfT), but updated the input data on economic growth rates, exchange rates, carbon prices, fuel prices and other variables. The researchers also estimated the costs of a new runway to the local community.

This included revisiting the DfT's estimates for noise disturbance and air pollution, and, for the first time, calculating the cost of additional surface congestion and community blight.

NEF said the DfT had predicted a £5.5 billion net benefit from a third runway. NEF said its report presented "the formidable environmental hurdle faced by proponents of a third runway because of the climate change impacts of air travel".