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Civil Aviation Bill

My Lords, I shall raise two issues on the amendment. First, I was not clear from the outline of the amendment given by the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, how it cuts across the right that property owners have under existing legislation. Compensation is payable to householders, not on a voluntary basis but on a compulsory basis under the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 and the Land Compensation Act 1973. I am not clear whether we are asking for additional compensation for particular groups of owners. Are they getting double the money that other people get? I was not clear on that, and I hope that the noble Lord can help. I wish to challenge the presumption on which the amendment is based. It assumes that airport expansion or development will have a negative impact on property prices. I challenge that very rigorously. Airport development is a catalyst for economic activity, investment, new jobs and higher incomes in the areas immediately surrounding airports. The increased wealth and new job opportunities increase demand for property conveniently located near the airport, and generally prices tend to rise rather than fall. The experience in Manchester is evidence of that. The area of the conurbation experiencing the highest house prices is south Manchester, which is conveniently located for the airport. People do not move away from airports. The Minister will know from his experience in Oldham that house prices in Oldham do not reflect the distance from the airport. Far from it; other factors comes into play. There is a presumption in the amendment that is wrong. House prices may well rise because an airport expands. When an expansion is announced—a new runway or a new terminal development—clearly some local will not like it. We understand that.