Chancellor expected to back cross-party commission to find consensus

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Chancellor George Osborne has said the government should 鈥渆xamine all the options鈥 for expanding airport capacity in the south east, including Heathrow.

Both coalition government parties ruled out a third runway at Heathrow in their manifestos at the last election.

Consequently the government鈥檚 recent consultation on airports, which resulted in an airport strategy being published in July, did not examine the possibility of a third runway at Heathrow.

But since then there has been continued pressure on the government to reverse its position. Most recently this came from Conservative chair of the House of Commons鈥 Energy and Climate Change Committee, Tim Yeo, who urged the Prime Minister to find a 鈥渟ense of mission鈥 and back the third runway plan.

Speaking on the BBC鈥檚 Andrew Marr show yesterday Osborne said: 鈥溾滷irst of all, I am firmly in the camp of 鈥榳e need more airport capacity in the south-east of England, we need more runway capacity in the south-east of England鈥.

鈥淟et鈥檚 examine all the options, let鈥檚 do it now, let鈥檚 make sure we can try and create a political consensus, we do need to deal with the fact that there is opposition across communities to particular airport developments, that鈥檚 perfectly understandable.鈥

The chancellor is expected to set up a commission to build cross party support for more airport capacity in the south east.

He pointed out that his own constituency covered part of Manchester airport so he was familiar with local concerns. But he said local concerns needed to be overcome 鈥渁s a nation鈥 so a decision on where additional runways should be built could be reached.