Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the taxpayer is planned to be liable for any proportion of the total cost of decontaminating land before a third runway can be constructed at Heathrow.

The Appraisal of Sustainability, published alongside the proposed Airports National Policy Statement, identifies the potential soil contamination issues in relation to the Heathrow Northwest Runway scheme. The Airports Commission also included £123m, plus optimism bias, for site levelling and soil remediation within its cost and commercial assessment.

The Government has been clear that expansion will be privately financed and costs will not fall on the taxpayer. This includes any land decontamination costs.