Former Financial Services Authority boss is tasked with making recommendations on airport expansion, reporting in 2015
The man charged with pointing the way forward for UK airport expansion will set out his work plans on Friday.
The former Financial Services Authority boss Sir Howard Davies will explain how his Whitehall-appointed commission intends to operate.
Aviation policy has become a political hot potato for the coalition government and few will envy Davies in his task of making recommendations on future expansion.
Airlines and airport operators are pushing for more capacity, particularly in the south-east. But unanimity about just how to achieve this is in short supply, with some such as the London mayor, Boris Johnson, backing a new Thames estuary airport and others preferring to see expansion at Heathrow or at one of the other major airports.
Davies's task is to bring out an interim report by the end of 2013 and then a full report in summer 2015 – after the next general election.
Johnson, among others, has been critical of the timescale imposed on Davies saying that the government is moving far too slowly, with the "continued inertia being fully exploited by our European rivals".
The former Tory cabinet minister Lord Heseltine has also been critical of the government, saying this week that he would like to see more progress on airports and other big infrastructure problems.
Some have viewed the Conservatives' approach to aviation with a degree of cynicism, arguing that the Tories are, deep down, keen to reverse their earlier decision and give the go-ahead to a third runway.
However, such an expansion at the airport is fraught with political sensitivity, with widespread opposition in west London and the Liberal Democrats firmly against it. Opposing Labour plans to expand the airport were a key plank in Cameron's modernisation agenda and meant to send out a signal that the Conservatives took environmental concerns seriously. Zac Goldsmith, the Tory MP for Richmond Park and a former green adviser to Cameron, has said he would not stand again if Cameron reversed his opposition to a third runway. He has described a U-turn on the issue as an "off-the-scale betrayal".
There has been talk of the Davies commission, and its timetable, being an attempt to "kick the matter into the long grass" until after the 2015 election.
Significantly Davies was appointed in September after Patrick McLoughlin took over as transport secretary from Justine Greening.
Greening, who represents Putney in south-west London, was firmly opposed to a third runway at Heathrow and her move to international development in the government reshuffle was seen by some as allowing the Tories to at least consider Heathrow expansion more freely.
- Transport policy
- Heathrow third runway
- Thames estuary airport
- Air transport
- Heathrow
- Airline industry
- Travel and transport
- Transport
- London