Airport planning policy "in a holding pattern", expert says

However Jon Riley of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the document contained a crucial "implicit acceptance of future airport growth" and recognition of the contribution airports make to the economy.

"There is also clear support for improved surface access, which will please most airport operators and those local enterprise partnerships that are working hard to secure improved surface connectivity to their regional airports," he said.

The NPPF simplifies English planning policy, condensing 1,300 pages of existing regulations into just 50. It creates a presumption in favour of sustainable development where a council's local plan is silent on the matter.

The document said that transport policies "have an important role to play in facilitating sustainable development", but also in contributing to wider sustainability and health objectives. Local authorities should work with neighbouring authorities and transport providers to develop strategies for the provision of viable large-scale infrastructure, including the investment necessary to support the growth of airports, ports and rail interchanges, it said.

Plans for ports, airports and airfields should take accounts of "their growth and role in serving business, leisure, training and emergency service needs", the document said, and should be located "where the need to travel will be minimised". They should also take into account any relevant national policy statements and the Government Framework for Aviation, it said.

In his 2012 Budget speech to the House of Commons last week, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that the lack of airport capacity in the south east of England "must be confronted". The Transport Secretary will set out the Government's delayed aviation policy "later this summer", he said.

"We cannot cut ourselves off from the fastest growing cities in the world," he added.

Passenger demand for London's airports is forecast to increase from 140 million a year in 2012 to 400 million passengers a year by 2050, according to a report by the Greater London Authority.

The Government cancelled plans for a proposed third runway at Heathrow when it took office in 2009 but has acknowledged the need for an alternative, which could include a new airport in the Thames Estuary. Plans for the project have been put forward by Mayor of London Boris Johnson and architect Lord Foster, however no decision has been made by the Government on a preferred option.