Gatwick decision sends positive UK infrastructure signals

Robbie Owen, a planning law expert at Pinsent Masons, was commenting after Heidi Alexander, secretary of state for transport, granted development consent to Gatwick Airport Limited over planned works that would bring the existing northern runway at the airport into routine use. It is envisaged that up to 80 million passengers will be able to use Gatwick each year post-development, up from the current capacity of around 45 million.

The decision letter issued on behalf of the secretary of state contains details of how the secretary of state balanced various factors that weighed for and against the granting of consent for the project.

In relation to the “need case”, for example, the letter noted government forecasts that show “a significant increase in aviation demand in London up to 2050”. She considered that recent airport expansion elsewhere in the south of England, coupled with the prospective development of a third runway at Heathrow, does not override the need for the project at Gatwick.

In the context of the planned development at Heathrow specifically, Alexander noted that the airports cater for “very different” types of passengers, with Gatwick associated with low-cost leisure travel and Heathrow a major hub for international transfers and business travel. She concluded in relation to Gatwick that “the need demonstrated is largely additional to, and different from, the need that would be met by the Heathrow scheme”.

Other factors that were weighed included the proposed impact of airport expansion at Gatwick on existing transport infrastructure and networks and on the environment – including in relation to the UK’s climate obligations and noise pollution.

Alexander said that relevant government environment policies and strategies, including obligations for net zero, have been appropriately considered and confirmed that measures that the developer will take to monitor and review “air noise limits and contours” were sufficient to balance concerns about the impact of added noise pollution on local residents with “allowing the airport to grow, with the associated economic benefits through infrastructure improvement”.

The Gatwick project is just the latest ‘nationally significant infrastructure project’ (NSIP) to have received development consent. The government said on Monday that the 21 development consent orders (DCOs) it has issued for projects during its first year in office is “the largest number of major infrastructure projects [to be ‘green-lit’] in the first year of a parliament in history”.

Developers behind NSIPs require a DCO to proceed with their projects. The DCO process is separate to other consenting regimes where decision-making powers rest with local planning authorities – DCOs are made by government ministers, but applications are subject to strict procedural requirements before decisions are taken, including in relation to consultation with statutorily-designated agencies and stakeholders, as well as evaluation by one or more planning inspectors.

Decisions around development consent are taken with reference to national policy statements (NPSs), which differ for the various different types of infrastructure that might be developed.

Aside from issuing 21 DCOs, the government has taken a series of other actions, since coming to power, aimed at making the UK a more attractive place to finance, build and operate infrastructure. One example is the pursuit of planning law reforms via the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill into the UK parliament.

Among the proposed measures in the Bill relevant to NSIPs are proposals to streamline the consenting regime and ensure the documents that govern how applications for development consent for NSIPs are assessed – national policy statements (NPSs) – are updated more regularly. Further measures aim to reduce the opportunity for judicial review challenges to be raised against NPSs and NSIP decisions.

Robbie Owen said: “This decision has come just after the Planning and Infrastructure Bill completed its committee stage in the House of Lords, when the government resisted a handful of amendments proposed to strengthen the bill for those infrastructure projects that are a critical national priority. The reaction to this decision, including any judicial review of it that is sought, will be a real test of the government’s position that the bill is sufficient. There is still time, however, for the government to take action by adding to the bill to help critical national priority infrastructure projects, rather than hoping for the best and preparing a further planning bill, which would not be law until 2027.”