UK Department for Transport Rejects Claims Grant Shapps Lobbies Against Building on Airfields

© AP Photo / Jon SuperConservative party chairman Grant Shapps opens Britain's Conservative Party Conference, Manchester, England
Conservative party chairman Grant Shapps opens Britain's Conservative Party Conference, Manchester, England - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.11.2021
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Earlier, the Sunday Times reported that UK Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps was lobbying against the government’s plans to build houses on private runways.
The UK Department for Transport has denied allegations that Grant Shapps was protecting airstrips from development, according to the Evening Standard.

“It is right that the Transport Secretary works to promote all aspects of the department’s brief including the general aviation sector, which contributes £4 billion to the economy and supports 40,000 jobs, especially as we focus on our recovery from the pandemic and on building a diverse workforce that’s fit for the future,” a Department for Transport spokesperson said.

The statement was issued shortly after the Sunday Times reported that Grant Shapps had diverted public money to a new team within the Civil Aviation Authority which should have pushed against plans for the construction of 3,000 homes at Chalgrove, an airfield in south Oxfordshire.
In turn, a government source said that the new team was not a “lobbying body, it was an advisory body to help general aviation with problems they may have, which may be planning or anything else”.
Grant Shapps is not only a politician, but also an enthusiastic pilot who obtained a licence in his twenties and owns a £100,000 Piper Saratoga, according to reports.
The allegations against Shapps were made as the UK's ruling Conservative Party has been accused of corruption after backing an MP who was found to have broken paid lobbying rules.
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