THE question about whether to build a third runway “is a decision for Heathrow”, the Transport Secretary has said.

Mark Harper told MPs it was up to Heathrow to “make the first move and we wait with interest to see whether they do so” as he was pressed on the Government’s commitment to any future project.

Raising the issue during Commons transport questions, Lib Dem Munira Wilson (Twickenham) asked: “A very simple question for the Transport Secretary. Is this Government committed to building a third runway at Heathrow, yes or no?”

Mr Harper replied: “As (she) knows, the decision about whether to build a third runway, is a decision for Heathrow and that’s a decision for them.

“The funding has to come from them and she knows that if at some point in the future they want to proceed with that, there’s a very significant process that has to go under way and she wouldn’t expect me to express an opinion on it because there’s obviously very clear judicial process to follow, but it was up to Heathrow to make the first move and we wait with interest to see whether they do so.”

The Heathrow expansion has been a controversial project for more than a decade, with successive Tory prime ministers having held differing views on the future of the airport.

Boris Johnson, whose Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency neighbours the airport, was firmly set against the plans and once declared that he would lie in front of the bulldozers to prevent expansion.

Windsor and Maidenhead Council has spent tens of thousands of pounds on campaigns against Heathrow Airport expansion. 

Back Heathrow put in a Freedom of Information Request in a bid to disclose council spending against the Heathrow expansion.

The report received in response revealed the then Conservative-led council of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead spent £43,531.93 on anti-Heathrow expansion campaigning from April 2020.

In a breakdown, this includes £33,333.33 spent between April 2021 to March 31, 2022, which went towards the failed legal challenge in the High Court.

The expansion plan for Heathrow Airport involves building a third runway to the northwest of the existing two runways.