The proposed third runway at Heathrow has been dealt a serious blow after a government document warned that airport group BAA cannot lodge a planning application for the project before the next general election.

The Conservatives, well ahead of Labour in the polls, have pledged to block a new runway at the UK's busiest international airport. The admission gives a Tory government ample time to draft a new aviation policy that will block BAA's plans.

According to a presentation by the Department for Transport, BAA is not expected to seek planning permission for a third runway until 2012. The last possible date for a general election is 3 June 2010 and BAA's best hope for expanding Heathrow is to start the planning process by submitting an application before then. Executives at the airport group have conceded that it will be impossible to compile the plans and data necessary for an application by that date. The DfT presentation deals a further blow to BAA's ambitions by conceding that the government document that must underpin a planning request for major infrastructure development, a national policy statement, will not be ready until 2011.

Read the full article in The Guardian.


Good. The government decided to ignore the responses to its "consultation" and press ahead with Heathrow expansion so that it could portray its ability to take tough decisions as a differentiator at the general election. Trouble is, the electorate has seen through that one.

We know what we have to do.