Continuing the fight on Heathrow expansion

Barbara Reid and I attended an Evening Standard debate last week at the RSA on Heathrow expansion.

Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Transport, was present and spoke at the meeting, presenting the government’s case for expansion. She said that she believed that Heathrow was too small, the UK needed a hub airport and that expansion was necessary for economic growth and competitiveness.

I addressed two specific issues directly to her.

Firstly, I told her that her economic argument did not stack up. As someone who works in the financial services banking sector in the city, I believe strongly that the city and the economy will not suffer if Heathrow does not expand. Whenever there is a threat of a recession, companies are immediately more cost focused, and one of the first cut backs they make, is on international travel. The business does not suffer because of this as technology allows communication through email and an increased use of telephone conferencing and video conferencing. Even although business is getting ever more global, there are global ways of working without physically having to be there....as offshoring to places like India has shown us.

I finished by telling Ruth Kelly of the results of my resident’s survey which showed 93% of residents against expansion. I told her that she should listen to those people who are affected by the proposed changes.

I really do care about the economy (not least because my current job depends on a strong financial sector!) as we need a strong economic climate to ensure people have jobs and prosperity. But I do not believe this is an economic debate. I care about local people and their quality of life. This is far more important, than this Labour government’s determination just to do whatever they want to.

I will keep up the fight on this issue on behalf of local residents.