A recent survey has revealed that about ten times as many UK businesses back the idea of a fast rail link to the North in place of expanding Heathrow. A survey report published by Continental Research, business-polling specialists says not more than 4% feel expanding Heathrow would help their business. It is said this is the first reliable business survey report about Heathrow expansion plans. The research covered a wide range of five hundred businesses across the UK including those from multi-nationals to small manufacturers. In each of these cases, the survey interviewed the Finance Director or his equivalent.

The results of the survey reveal that 4% of British businesses feel they will benefit from expanding Heathrow, while a vast majority of 95% said it would rather make little or no difference. On the other hand, about 23% of businesses said they would be certainly helped by a new high-speed rail line to the North, which has been proposed by David Cameron. When questioned specifically whether which would help their business more, about 37% of businesses chose the rail link while only 4% chose Heathrow.

Chris Shaw of Restore UK remarked, "This proves how wrong the Government is to say that British business is crying out for Heathrow expansion. In fact, only a tiny proportion of businesses stand to benefit. Given the level of opposition amongst MPs, campaigners, and concerned members of the public - let alone the people who live under the proposed flight path or face having their homes demolished - now is the time for the Government to drop these massively unpopular plans.”