Anyone for TEA?
Thursday 27th February 2025
Plus a ‘City of Heathrow’?
The Labour Government are making a complete Horlicks of their attempts to get growth.
A third runway at Heathrow is their best pathetic attempt to date.
TEA is the answer.
Yes. A brand-new bespoke Thames Estuary Airport.
Hear me through.
The intense lobbying from vested interests has succeeded, to date, in swaying the argument towards Heathrow and away from a new Thames Estuary Airport.
These vested interests are British Airways, who have over 50% of the landing slots at Heathrow giving them a huge advantage over other considerably better airlines. BA could (should in my view) lose their stranglehold on slots, at a new hub airport.
Plus, Heathrow is owned by FGP Topco Ltd which is a 98% foreign-owned consortium of investors. They don’t give a damn about anything but their own shareholders’ returns.
I have a plan which brings together many of this Governments’ objectives in one big growth orientated project.
1. Build. A brand new bespoke floating 4/5/6 runway 24-hour international hub airport (TEA) in the Thames Estuary and link it by fast train to HS1 via Eurotunnel to Paris, Brussels and other new European cities. Create links meeting the new Elizabeth Line at Stratford in East London, plus a direct route into St Pancras & Kings Cross in Central London itself.
2. New Towns. Fat lot of use planning 10 x 10,000 home new towns which don’t yet have infrastructure. The City of Heathrow will be beautifully connected already. Estimates are that over 100,000 new dwellings could be created on the 12sq km site. Without flights going over, we can build high. Imagine loads more housing in a suitable spot, plus the whole of West London lifted by not having flights going over every 90 seconds. People might actually want to live in Hounslow!
3. Green Targets. The dominant wind at Heathrow is from the SW so approx. 70% of the landing flights come in over London. Not Green. Even with a third runway, demand is so high there will still be flights backed up and circling over the whole of the South East, spewing out aviation fumes as they go. Then what? A fourth runway? Let the vested interests lobbying commence now! No. TEA will allow landings offshore with the wind carrying any fumes into the North Sea. The 24-hour facility will take away the need for all those polluting ‘holding’ patterns. Much greener.
4. Cost. My fees for this visionary plan are the usual 2%+VAT. No seriously. An objective of the Treasury -rightly for once- is to get more investment by UK Pension Funds into UK infrastructure. TEA would be an ideal scheme in which to invest our hard-earned pensions. The compulsory purchase of Heathrow from the foreign investors at today’s value would be about £10bn. There will be UK pension funds delighted to step in to buy it and to build housing.
I invite S’Kier Starmer and Rachel Reeves to discuss TEA. Over Coffee?
Until next time…
PB
Share this article
k L E D