Britain due to decide on new London runway amid political chaos

By Sarah Young

LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - The British government is still on course to make a decision this summer on where to build a new London airport runway, a spokeswoman said, despite the political chaos caused by the Brexit vote.

After Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement that he will resign by October, a group of business leaders wrote a letter to a newspaper on Monday calling for the long-awaited investment decision to be taken "as a matter of urgency".

Cameron's government has taken four years to decide where to build a new runway, with Heathrow seen as the front-runner over rival Gatwick, and a final decision had been due in weeks.

Former London mayor Boris Johnson, the favourite to succeed Cameron as prime minister, has opposed expansion at Heathrow and once said he would lie down in front of the bulldozers to stop a third runway being built there.

Past attempts to expand Heathrow, located close to densely-populated west London, have been hampered by local opposition, due to worries about increased noise and air pollution.

The chief executive of Gatwick, located south of the city in a less populated area, is due to say in a speech that Brexit has strengthened his argument that it would be easier and more effective to build the runway there.

"It is now clearer than ever that only Gatwick can deliver the new runway Britain needs," Gatwick Chief Executive Stewart Wingate will tell a conference on Tuesday, according to extracts of the speech provided by the airport to media.

"In these uncertain times that means Gatwick can give the country certainty of delivery. Britain cannot afford yet more delay."

A spokesman for Heathrow said his airport was "the UK's gateway to global markets". It released research on Sunday which showed that two-thirds of 150 lawmakers polled supported building the new runway there.

Transport Minister Patrick McLoughlin has said that this decision will be made before the end of July.

A spokeswoman for Cameron said on Monday that there was no change in the timetable, and that the government would announce its decision once it had seen the results of further environmental assessments.

On Monday, fifty business leaders including the CEOs of broker ICAP (LSE: IAP.L - news) , real estate company Land Securities (LSE: LAND.L - news) and insurer Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) published a letter in the Times saying the Brexit vote made the need for a new runway more pressing given that Britain would need to step-up trade with economies beyond the EU. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy)