Heathrow and Gatwick both need a new runway, LHR ideally 2 new runways. They both would be, in the main, privately funded (some additional transport infrastructure would be required at LHR which may be government funded) and completed much much quicker than any estuary airport idea; alongside of course protecting thousands of jobs.
Yes, and that's just to catch up with Paris's two main airports!
Also... a minor point, but Boris says 190,000 homes would be created if Heathrow would be closed down. Now I know Heathrow is big, having connected there several times but 190,000!? That seems far too optimistic for a site even as big as Heathrow surely?
Quite right, 190,000 homes means a population of over 400,000 (a population a little bigger than Croydon, a little smaller than Bristol or Edinburgh). There's no way they would fit onto the Heathrow site, maybe it was 19,000 homes and even that's pushing it.........
Forget Boris's fantasies, Heathrow won't be closed: there is no way its owners would sell such a profitable enterprise. The board would be lunatics to consider it, the shareholders would never sanction it, so let's put this particular nonsense to bed.
We need to make use of existing airports and expand those sites.
One good example of this would be the infrastructure that serves LGW. It's becoming a bit of a transport hub in itself. The railway station redevelopment and the amount of trains that will serve the airport (a train every 2.5 mins to London) by 2019 is testimony to that. I believe a prunner stated not too long ago that trains only serve the South Terminal, so it certainly isn't ideal. The transit will get you to the North Terminal in a matter of minutes, so it's irrelevant.
The point I'm trying to make is that there IS plenty of investment going into Heathrow (in the right location) and also Gatwick (also happens to be in the right location). Both airports need more runways. In the case of LGW, it has the busiest single runway operation in the world. This means that it could do with a 2nd runway. FACT. The capacity is there and it will certainly grow.
Likewise with LHR. Both of these airports are ideally located to serve the southeast and its future capacity problems. Lay the runways at both of these sites and it's problem solved. Simple as that.
Yes, plain common sense!