It's clear none of you have the remotest grasp of the economics which keep an airport running...
Suffice to say, without public subsidy, having GA paying peanuts at a big airport makes sense only to the GA pilot and his passengers. The situation in France is much better; I had a meeting recently at a regional airport with a nearly-2,000 m runway, ILS, NDB, DME, radar, etc. I flew in in a 5.7 tonne jet and paid less than €60 for landing and parking. Ate an excellent lunch in the restaurant in the terminal, drank a perfect coffee, fuelled at a reasonable price, and back home again...
The French government is behind aviation and therefore GA; the British one doesn't care a jot.
You voted for them!
Nav/Landing charges are there to cover long runways, de-icing, ILS, Radar and other such nice things that exist at large airports. Yep it does cost to run & maintain all that posh gubbins. Some of us happen to be employed to do those very tasks...
What I have always questioned is this "mandatory handling" thing for GA at certain airfields. Bizjets/TPs requiring a huffer cart, marshaller, VIP transport, assist with baggage etc. is all well and fine, but if someone's popping in with a 152 that can self-park in a quiet corner not bothering anyone does not require "handling". Fair enough if there's say an extra tenner for a security officer to escort between the aircraft and the GA terminal/reception/whatever's there at the airfield, that's OK, but "mandatory handling" and the associated eye-popping price attached just rips the pish as far as cynical Smithy is concerned.
Oh and I did not vote for our current Government either but that's another discussion entirely...