Patrick McLouglin moved from Transport and departments to close
Patrick McLouglin has been moved from Transport to become Conservative Party Chairman and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, Department for Energy and Climate Change and Department for Transport are all set to be closed, but we wait for if these will end up as one larger department or some other arrangement.
Obviously this could have ramifications for Manston, runway capacity and decisions in the South East.
Only yesterday McLoughlin was reported as urging for a quick decision on a South East runway to meet timetables. However with Teresa May’s constituency being near the Heathrow flight path as are others in her new cabinet (even with many of their constituents likely to work there), will Gatwick become the favourite? At the same time, they may look for alternative options, even if only for the short term, when regional airports such as Manston could fill the void and prove their usefulness instead of, or alongside, massive London airports.
Back on the 4th July, Liam Fox (at the time, PM candidate) suggested he would scrap the HS2 scheme, instead favouring upgrading of regional lines. He also said:
“I personally favour more investment in the regions to enable hub airports to flourish”.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/liam-fox-ill-scrap-hs2-if-i-become-pm-a3287531.html