The "problem" with the UK is that it runs mostly on the "user pays" principle.
That this leads to either decrepitude (as in Elstree EGTR) or blatent exploitation of suckers who have nowhere else to go (as in Heathrow, Gatwick, etc, confiscating half your stuff and then flogging you a tube of "duty free" hand cream for £8) is something which "somebody else" worries about.
Airports here are nearly all free standing businesses, which need to raise money from a combination of
- a commercial property portfolio
- restaurant business
- landing fees
- parking charges
and with much of UK GA so tight that (to use my favourite phrase) you could not get a #1 Pozi screwdriver up their sphincters, it is not an easy business. Most UK pilots think a £20 landing fee is way too high
A quality airport has to be an industrial estate which just happens to have a runway and a tower next to it.
The real issue is with Planning regs which treat an airfield the same as a commercial park, so if Planning was granted for an airfield, it could be easily converted later into a commercial park, or a housing estate.
So it is almost impossible (so it appears, anyway, since the Planning application budget would need to be close to £100k so few if any people have tried it in recent decades) to start a new airfield, with a cost base appropriate to its usage.
The rateable value of everything there will be based on commercial property which will be so high that hangarage is at least £500/month (in the south east UK) just to cover the rates on the hangar, and that in turn leads to more decrepitude in GA generally because nobody with a half decent plane wants to keep it outdoors.
The most useful legislation by far would be one which creates a new Planning category for light aircraft airfields.