London Gatwick expansion: Crawley MP gives his thoughts as airport awaits decision on Northern Runway plans

A decision on the £2.2 billion project proposals, which will see the Northern Runway be brought into more regular use, is expected at the end of the month.

If the plans are given the go-ahead, 14,000 additional jobs across the region will be created, adding a further £1 billion to the regional economy. The plans could also bring an additional 60,000 flights per year and see an increase to 161,500 tonnes of cargo by 2038 – more than double 2019 levels.

In her growth speech two weeks ago, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the government backed a third runway at Heathrow Airport and other airport expansion, without referring specifically to Gatwick’s plans. We caught up with Mr Lamb at London Gatwick’s Apprentice Fair and asked him for his thoughts and if he had any insight in how the decision may go.

"It's an active planning application, it doesn't go into your local council, it goes into the planning inspectorate nationally and ministers finally have to take a decision on that based upon what their planning inspector says. So because of that they can't give you any direct insight, otherwise it probably would have been part of the conversation around Rachel Reeves the other day. The big thing to bear in mind is this, is there's no standing still, so whatever happens at Gatwick is going to continue to evolve as time goes on and in terms of our local employment and in terms of our local transport and things like that, we're going to have to continue to grow to deal with the capacity that Gatwick has and what it can offer."

But the proposals face fierce opposition from campaign groups such as CAGNE, CPRE and Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC) because of the environmental impact.

"Whatever comes out has got to be something that's viable for the area and that's really what my viewpoint is” said Mr Lamb. “Growth is not a bad thing by itself but it's got to come with those bits which enable that growth to be viable. You've got to make sure that you've got that transport infrastructure, that you've got the housing, these things have actually got to deliver for the local community.

“If you haven't got that then it becomes more of a problem and so it's never the issue by itself, it's about making sure that the whole thing in the round actually delivers to the area. Those groups have got valid points that they want to raise, it's absolutely right that people make their views heard and, you know, we've got to listen to all of that and make sure that it's taken into account as part of that decision.

"But you're not going to necessarily always get everyone happy all at the same time about the same issues. There's always going to be people who are for, people who are against. The main thing is making sure that as far as possible, whatever happens, you've compensated for whatever negative impacts or positive impacts there are.”