It's difficult to have an opinion (or even to "be sceptical") without having researched the facts.

T5 and T2 are designed for a 25-50 year life. T5 is already inadequate, with the main terminal and particularly the satellites having been built smaller than originally planned. Although it's generally comfortable to use right now (though corded at times), we'll see it becoming increasingly overcrowded as the economy picks up, more people travel and more A380s are deployed. The security areas have already been redesigned (twice) since it opened five years ago.

The T5 and T2 developments were essential - overdue and really only bring LHR up to international standard. The cost of terminals is tiny when compared with a new airport, and associated infrastructure.

The two new terminals do little to address the fundamental problems with LHR which is that the site is highly constrained from a space perspective, and fundamentally in the wrong place, built on one of the highest value land plots in the South East, and requiring aircraft to overfly the most densely populated part of the UK (noise/pollution.crash risk), and causing additional congestion as travellers converge by road (due to poor integrated transport links) on an already overcrowded M4 western gateway to London.

A new hub, without these constraints, is vital, and it will take a generation to get it into action, so a 2030 horizon (by which time T5 will be outdated) seems right.

If you're over 45, LHR will be (just about) adequate to see you through the rest of your working life.

But for those with 20+ years of working life ahead of them, the thought of using LHR in the 2030s isn't pleasant, as anyone who used Heathrow in the dark days of heavy overcrowding and undermaintenance of other terminals just prior to T5 opening will recall.

We need a new hub for the next generation, and the generation after that. Not having such a facility will be a handicap to UK plc we can ill afford.