The Mayor of London has set out a detailed vision for transforming London into the greatest economic powerhouse of the 21st century, with a new airport to complement the new seaport about to open in the Thames estuary, new road and rail connections to boost the economy of east London, Kent and Essex and the opportunity for a new town in west London housing up to 250,000 people on land currently occupied by Heathrow Airport.
Speaking at City Hall yesterday, the Mayor said that connectivity was essential to participation in the global economy and to ensuring that a city with a growing population could offer jobs and prosperity to its people. He outlined the details of an extensive, independently peer-reviewed investigation that has been carried out by his team at Transport for London over the last year into the potential options for new aviation capacity.
This demonstrates conclusively that there are three optimal locations for a new airport:
– on the Isle of Grain in north Kent;
– at Stansted;
– on an artificial island in the middle of the Thames estuary.
He announced that he would be submitting detailed proposals for all three sites to the Davies Commission later in the week.
He also revealed the enormous potential economic benefits of building a new hub airport, which he confirmed would be able to support more than 375,000 new jobs by 2050 and add £742bn to the value of goods and services produced in the UK.
[mappress]
Press Release, July 16, 2013