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Civil Aviation Bill

My Lords, of course there are bound to be pressures with the expansion of airports. It is bound to create circumstances where additional flights occur, and it cannot be the case that in the locality this is greatly welcomed. But it is expected that airports act responsibly; that they work within the environment of their local consultative committees on which local people are represented; and that proceeds from charges can and do go to improve facilities in their locality. I want to emphasise the obvious point. Of course there will always be challenges to any form of airport expansion. A balance must be struck. I want to assure the House that we have in place existing powers to guarantee that airports face up to their responsibilities. If they should renege on these responsibilities, this Administration have been in power for almost a decade, and the noble Lord will recognise, as he mentioned in his question, that we and Ministers from the previous Administration have faced up to these issues of airport expansion. A balance must be struck between the problems for the local environment and the need to provide greater scope for air travel. I am merely indicating that neither the previous Administration nor this one have felt the need to use the powers that we have under Section 78 because we find airports all too well aware of the fact that they will not see through their expansion plans unless they take an element of the locality with them.