Heathrow-funded group sending 'incredibly misleading' mail to homes across west London, campaigners allege

A campaign group for a third runway at Heathrow that gets funding from the airport has been distributing "incredibly misleading" information to households in west London, according to opponents of the expansion.

The group, called Back Heathrow, sent leaflets to people living near the airport, claiming expansion could be the route to a "greener" airport and suggesting it would mean only the "cleanest and quietest aircraft" fly there. It comes as the airport prepares to submit its planning application for a third runway ahead of the 31 July deadline, following the government's statement of support for the expansion.

Back Heathrow calls itself a "local campaign group of over 100,000 residents" and does not mention the funding it receives from the airport in the newsletter. Its website also does not mention the current financial support and says it "initially launched with funding from Heathrow Airport but we have since grown".

Back Heathrow also told Sky News it had "always been open" about the support it receives from the airport. At the bottom of every web page, the organisation says: "Back Heathrow is a group of residents, businesses and community groups who have come together to defend the jobs that rely on Heathrow and to campaign for its secure future." Heathrow Airport said it had always been clear about funding Back Heathrow, but would not disclose how much it provides.

Who's behind Back Heathrow? The group's executive director is former Labour minister Parmjit Dhanda, who was MP for Gloucester from 2001 to 2010 and sits on the National Policy Forum - the body responsible for developing Labour policy. Latest accounts for Back Heathrow show it had five employees, including its two directors, in the financial year ending 30 June 2024.

The second director is John Braggins, a former campaign adviser to Tony Blair. The business had £243,961 in cash, the accounts show.

What are the group saying? In the newsletter, executive director Mr Dhanda said people ask if Heathrow is sustainable. In answering the question, he appeared to suggest the airport can dictate what types of planes use Heathrow.

"We can build a cleaner, greener and smarter airport - using more sustainable aviation fuel, ensuring only the cleanest and quietest aircraft fly here, reduce stacking in our skies and modernise our airspace to cut emissions in flight," he wrote. When asked by Sky News what Back Heathrow meant and what the source for the claim was, the organisation pointed to the airport's traffic light system of noise and emission measurements for the 50 largest airlines serving Heathrow.

"The scheme helps to see what areas certain airlines are excelling in and where improvements can be made," a spokesperson said. But those "cleaner and greener" claims were dismissed as "myths" by one campaigner.

Finlay Asher is an aerospace engineer and co-founder of Safe Landing, a group of aviation workers and enthusiasts seeking climate improvements in the industry. He said the emissions savings from sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) were "highly debatable" - but added that even if they were taken at face value, use of these fuels is "relatively low" and so only provides small emissions reductions.

"Air traffic growth at Heathrow will wipe this out," he said. Mr Asher also disputed the claim that only the cleanest and quietest aircraft will fly at Heathrow.

"There is no policy in place which prevents older generation aircraft from being operated out of any airport," he said. As for reducing "stacking" - where aircraft wait over an airport to land - Mr Asher said if that's the goal, "adding more aircraft to the sky won't make this easier".

Opposition to Back Heathrow's claims also came from Rob Barnstone, founder of the No Third Runway Coalition, which is funded by five local authorities surrounding Heathrow Airport. He said that regardless of fuel efficiencies or new quieter engines, having the additional 260,000 flights Heathrow has said will be created with an extra runway - in addition to the airport's current cap of 480,000 - would create "an awful lot of noise".

"For all the best will in the world, Heathrow is a very, very, very noisy neighbour... When you're adding a quarter of a million additional flights, that's going to create an awful lot of emissions, even if they're using planes that are ever so slightly less environmentally damaging than previous planes," Mr Barnstone said.

Green claims Under the heading of "UK sustainable fuel industry for Heathrow.