Budget 'will delay second Stansted runway until 2030'

By Sinead Holland

NEW Government predictions have grounded a second runway at Stansted until at least 2030, according to SSE claims today (Tuesday, April 28).

The anti-expansion campaigners have seized on figures in the Chancellor's Budget report as proof that BAA's plans for 68m passengers at year at the airport by that date are just pie in the sky.

An SSE spokeswoman said Alistair Darling's prediction of further deterioration in the UK economy meant demand at Stansted in 21 years would only hit 42.7m travellers every 12 months - "well within" the capacity of the existing runway.



The campaigners claimed that when BAA submitted its planning application in March 2008, its forecast of 68m by 2030 was underpinned by Department for Transport data. Then the DfT trimmed its prediction first to 55m and then, in January 2009, announced a further reduction to 46.5m.

The newest decrease to 42.7m passengers reflects the difference between the economic projections in the Pre-Budget Report and those published in the actual Budget Report last week.

SSE economics adviser, Brian Ross, said: "These latest Government figures totally pull the rug from under BAA feet and show that it would be a complete waste of time and money for BAA to insist on proceeding with a public inquiry when there is no prospect of its project being approved."



Mr Ross continued: "We have the Competition Commission saying that BAA must sell the airport, we have both the main opposition parties pledged to cancel the second runway project, we have Stansted passenger numbers down by more than 20 percent since 2007 and now we have these new forecasts showing that the existing runway can cope with predicted demand for at least the next 20 years.

"How much more evidence does BAA need before it will accept that its dream of a second runway is dead in the water?"



He concluded: "If BAA won't abandon this project, the Government should step in and cancel it for them. In these austere times, this Spanish-owned company should not be allowed to force UK taxpayers and local council taxpayers into incurring totally pointless and wasteful expenditure."



SSE added that if the latest IMF projections were to be applied, the 2030 demand forecast for Stansted would be much less than 42.7m passengers.