Moneymen back Thames airport

Ambitious plans for a multi-billion pound airport on a man-made island in the Thames estuary have won preliminary financial backing.

The company behind Marinairport is reported to have said it was "at the final stage of exchanging contracts for implementation of funding, which will be announced shortly".

Designs will shortly be submitted to Transport Secretary Stephen Byers. He is due to publish a consultation document within the next two months outlining 16 potential new runway sites in the South-East.

A 3,500-acre island north-east of the Isle of Sheppey would carry four runways and could operate round the clock.

The Thames Estuary Airport Company argued in 1993, when plans were first put forward, that Marinairport "virtually eliminates the noise penalty".

The main terminals would be built on disused land near Tilbury, Essex. Passengers would get to the island on a high-speed railway under the Thames.

In the early Nineties construction costs alone were estimated at £9.62 billion and the total double that. The company, whose directors include Conservative peers Lord Denham and Lord Mowbray and Stourton, has declined to reveal the identity of its financial backers.