Saturday, 5 April 2025

No Environment: No Jobs?

 


 Luton airport (currently the UK’s 4th largest) is being allowed to double in size to 32 million passengers. This is in spite of local objections about the likely disturbance, the destruction of ancient trees and the proximity of the Chilterns. The UK government claim that “The promise of thousands of additional jobs….outweighed environmental considerations “ (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/03/luton-airport-allowed-to-double-capacity-after-uk-government-overrules-planners). This is actually lazy thinking. The additional jobs (always likely to be an over-estimate) are pointless if a viable environment no longer exists. The entire calculation is also thrown into doubt by the current changes in the world economy. The idea of UK economic growth seems unlikely. Folk are also unlikely to regard the UK as being ‘open for business’, simply because it has a lot of air transport capacity.

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