Thames airport 'should be rejected' - MPs report

The government should reject the "Boris Island" Thames Estuary airport plan and expand Heathrow instead, a report by MPs has said.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has argued for a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary.

Yet the House of Commons Transport Committee warned it would be hugely expensive.

The mayor insists London needs a new airport and the only possible place is east of London.

But the report also warned the new airport could mean the closure of Heathrow and could harm estuary wildlife.

The MPs argue a third runway at Heathrow is necessary instead and even suggest a fourth runway might have merit.

A third runway is opposed by both residents and councils in west London.

The committee said adding new runways to expand other existing airports 

was not a long-term solution.

Committee chairwoman Louise Ellman MP said: "Research we commissioned made plain that building an entirely new hub airport east of London could not be done without huge public investment in new ground transport infrastructure.

"Evidence to our inquiry also showed a substantial potential impact on wildlife habitat in the Thames Estuary.

"The viability of an estuary hub airport would also require the closure of Heathrow - a course of action that would have unacceptable consequences."

Mr Johnson said: "The committee is bang on the button in saying we need a proper hub airport.

"But, by suggesting that Heathrow should double its runways from two to four, the committee is putting four fingers up to hundreds of thousands of Londoners.

"London and the wider UK do need a hub airport that can operate 24 hours a day without constraint and the only place that is possible is to the east of London."

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Japan central bank acts on stronger yen

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has announced measures to boost lending aimed at combating the rising value of the yen.

Following an emergency meeting, the central bank said it would increasing lending to commercial banks by 10 trillion yen ($117bn; £75bn).

The measure is designed to stem the value of the currency, and boost lending to businesses.

Meanwhile the Japanese government has announced its own plans for a 920 billion yen stimulus package.

Prime minister Naoto Kan said ministers had agreed a plan to fight the rise in the yen, as well as to try and counter weakness in some economies - especially the US and in Europe - that buy Japanese goods.

Analysts fear the rising yen is undermining the country's fragile economic recovery.

A strong yen makes exports less competitive overseas. It also reduces the value of profits made abroad when they are repatriated to Japan.

In a statement, the BOJ said its decision to boost its low interest bank loan programme meant 30 trillion yen was now available for lending.

"The bank believes that the monetary-easing measure, together with government efforts, will be effective in further ensuring Japan's economic recovery," it said.

Yen rises again

The BOJ hopes that increasing the amount of loans available will reduce market interest rates, curbing rises in the yen.

Last week the currency hit a 15-month high against the dollar - potentially a significant problem for the Japanese economy which relies heavily on exports for growth.

A recent government survey suggested that many companies in Japan were considering moving production overseas if the yen remained strong.

The BBC's Tokyo correspondent Roland Buerk said that the bank's Governor, Masaaki Shirakawa returned from the United States a day earlier than planned to handle the currency crisis.

Our correspondent added that doubts persisted about whether the latest measures would have much effect, given that Japan was mired in deflation.

Japan's economic growth has also continued to be sluggish, slowing to just 0.4% at an annualised rate in the second quarter of the year.

Recent data suggests that China is poised to overtake Japan as the world's second biggest economy.

The markets appeared unimpressed by the BOJ's actions.

The yen gained ground against all major currencies following the announcement, after seeing some falls before the bank met.

Analysts suggested investors were looking for much stronger action from the BOJ.

Mobile firms failing on coverage

UK mobile phone buyers are not being given sufficient information about how to cancel contracts if they encounter coverage problems, a study has found.

In secret shopper tests, the Communications Consumer Panel found that over half of shoppers were given inaccurate information.

It also found that some firms allow cancellations due to coverage issues while others do not.

The panel called on mobile firms to offer consistent guidelines.

Panel chair Anna Bradley said that consumers must be given simple and accurate information before locking themselves into contracts that they might not be able to leave for up to two years.

"We are calling for an across-the-board minimum 14 days to cancel contracts where consumers have coverage problems," she said.

The time limit allowed by mobile firms for cancelling contracts currently varies dramatically, the study found.

Most, with the exception of Orange, allowed customers some period of grace.

Virgin Mobile gives customers 28 days to cancel, compared to 14 days for 02 and Tesco Mobile, and 7 days for Vodafone and T-Mobile.

3 came out best in the survey. It has no time limit on cancellations due to coverage issues and only 4% of shoppers were given inaccurate information.

"Whilst we are significantly expanding our network, we accept the fact that no mobile operator can have total blanket coverage, which is why we have this policy in place," said a 3 spokesman.

Orange, on the other hand, does not allow users to cancel contracts because of poor coverage.

"When a customer purchases a handset and then returns it to us, the handset becomes second hand. As such we are not able to offer a formal money back guarantee.

However we are aware that sometimes issues do arise, which is why a reasonable and flexible approach is applied. If a customer is deeply unhappy with their purchase from a store we will will always consider their issue on a case by case basis," said a spokesperson for Orange.