The Sunday Telegraph reported that the high fees would be the result of the costs associated with developing the new airport. It estimated those costs at between £50 billion and £70bn. The newspaper also reported that there are fears a new airport located to the east of London could result in major businesses currently located in the M4 corridor looking to follow the airport and relocate eastwards.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said all of the different options for airport capacity expansion should be explored and added that we should not "concrete over vast swathes of the Thames estuary on a whim". Clegg was speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show on Sunday.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has put forward plans for a Thames Estuary airport and asrchitect Lord Forster recently unveiled his proposals for a controversial Thames Estuary airport hub, but no decision has been made by the Government on a preferred option.
"I think that where we are is that the Government is increasingly interested in this idea," Johnson recently told Radio 4's Today programme, referring to the proposals for a new airport in the Thames estuary.
The Government has stated that it intends to publish a draft aviation policy framework for consultation in March 2012.
