South London companies surveyed on Heathrow expansion

Thursday 6th March 2008

South London Business, the voice of south London’s business community, has recently completed a survey of local businesses on the expansion of Heathrow Airport. Approximately 100 companies, employing a total of 4800 employees, completed the survey.

South London Business Chief Executive, Peter Pledger, said “The expansion of Heathrow Airport is clearly an emotive issue. Business organisations in Central London have said their members are in favour of Heathrow’s expansion. I wanted to ask south London’s businesses what they thought. Whilst few businesses felt there would be a negative impact on their business if Heathrow was not expanded, almost 60% were in favour of airport expansion and a majority of respondents felt the airport’s expansion was important for both London’s reputation as a World City and for the Capital’s economic competitiveness�.

The results of the survey concluded:
• 80% of businesses felt Heathrow was important to London’s global competitiveness.

• 57% of companies thought London’s Airports should be expanded, with larger companies placing greater emphasis on airport expansion than smaller ones. 68% of medium sized businesses (50-200 employees) and 90% of large businesses (200+ employees) were in favour of expansion.

• 61% of companies felt Heathrow’s expansion was necessary for London to remain a World City.

• 71% of companies did not believe there would be a negative impact on their business if Heathrow was not expanded.

• 34.9% of companies would like to see Gatwick Airport expanded, 34% of companies would like to see Heathrow Airport expanded, and 17% would like to see Biggin Hill expanded.

South London Business used the results of its survey to prepare a response to the Depart of Transport’s consultation on the expansion of Heathrow Airport.

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