For the Ramblers, the proposed expansion of Britain's airports poses a serious threat to the countryside. The threat is particularly in terms of the land that needs to be concreted over to provide runways and other infrastructure, the noise that planes make which wrecks the tranquillity, and the natural resources (such as sand and gravel, energy and water) that are needed to service such development.
Rapid expansion of aviation in the UK threatens to undermine all other government efforts to reduce pollution and tackle climate change.
Aviation is a rapidly expanding industry and seems to be one of the 'forgotten causes' when it comes to the environmental impact of transport. Government studies forecast that aviation will represent between 10% - 28% of total UK energy use by 2050. Despite this it is excluded from the Kyoto treaty on climate change.
The aviation industry has also managed to avoid paying taxes - it pays no VAT on fuel, no VAT on new aircraft and VAT is not charged on air tickets. Compare this to petrol, where approximately 75% of the price of a litre of fuel is excise duty. VAT is also now charged on the luxury of heating your house! It is because of the lack of taxes on the aviation industry that air travel has become so cheap. In fact, its tax exemption amounts to around £7.5 billion.
Aviation takes more money out of Britain than it brings in- almost £16bn. The Office of National Statistics in 2005 reported “a record 54 million overseas flights were made by UK residents who spent £28.0 billion overseas. This compared to just 22 million foreign visitors coming to the UK and spending £12.3 billion. In addition there was a net trade deficit of more than £3.0 billion on the purchase of airline tickets.”
In 2003, the Government White Paper and a series of consultation documents were produced to look at different options for the aviation industry. Unfortunately the documents written on the assumption that our aviation industry needs to expand and many of the real issues (such as taxation) were not properly looked at.
The Ramblers also works closely with other organisations to campaign against unnecessary expansion.
