London Gatwick £2.2bn growth plans: What are the next steps? When will a decision be made? When would construction start? Can people still give feedback on the plans?

By investing in its long-term future, London Gatwick will also enhance the crucial economic role it plays by creating around 14,000 new jobs and injecting £1 billion into the region’s economy every year. This growth would come from increased tourism, trade, supply-chain, and other business opportunities.

The airport says this forward-looking and low impact plan aims to leverage the airport’s existing infrastructure to unlock new capacity and improve airport resilience, in line with government policy.

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The application has been in the works since 2017. In 2018 they developed a draft masterplan which got finalised in 2019. Then 2021 they started their most significant consultation where they laid down their proposals.

London Gatwick’s chief planning officer Tim Norwood developed and designed the project. He said: “We got about 6,500 comments and individual responses to that consultation and as a result we took on board the feedback and made some significant changes to the road layouts, access to the South and North Terminals and to the Longbridge roundabout. We listed to the residents and we consulted on those again in the summer of 2022.”

And following that consultation, London Gatwick chiefs have been able to finalise the proposals – culminating in then submitting the DCO today (Thursday, July 3).

What are the next steps and when is a decision made?

Mr Norwood explained: “We now go into a month-long period where the inspectorate decides whether to accept our application and if they decide to accept it, we then start the examination process. The formal examinations generally take the form of hearings and they will begin at the end of this year or early next year and that examination phase lasts six months.

“After that the planning inspectors take all of the evidence they have heard and they have three months in which to complete a report which provides a recommendation to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State has a further three months in order to make a final decision on the project. We expect that to be in the region of 2024.”

When will construction start, if approved?

Mr Norwood said: “With it all going well and we get approval at the end of 2024 we could see work start in 2025, there’s about a four year construction programme. A lot of our construction on the airfield needs to be undertaken at night, which is what we routinely do today.

“We believe the Northern Runway could be operational by the end of this decade.”

Can people still give feedback on the plans?

Mr Norwood explained: “What the examination process entails is for everybody to have their view on the project whether you are a business, you are employed by the airport, whether to support the proposals or you are campaign group that is worried about the environmental impacts, the six month examination period is your opportunity to put your views forward to the independent planning inspectorate.”

What does this mean for the future of London Gatwick?

Mr Norwood said: “I really hope this is the future of the airport. I think we all recognise how important the airport is to the local area and for our local residents. We have a huge number of local residents who rely on the airport for jobs, we have a huge number of local businesses who rely on the local airport for importing and exporting goods but also we also spend £100m a year on the local supply chain so we know we are an important economic asset to the region so what this does is help secure this asset for the long term future.”